18-Year Touradji Pay Dispute Returns to Court

Former Touradji Capital traders Gentry Beach and Robert Vollero will return to trial later this month seeking roughly $165 million in damages and accrued interest. The plaintiffs allege founder Paul Touradji orally promised them fixed shares of profits from their trading strategies.

The litigation began in December 2008, when Beach sued Touradji for compensation he said was owed under a verbal agreement. Vollero joined the suit in early 2009. The original claim sought about $60 million; Touradji has maintained that compensation at the firm was discretionary and not governed by a fixed profit-sharing arrangement.

The case has a long procedural history. In 2019 a jury found for Beach and Vollero and awarded $45 million plus interest. That verdict was reversed in 2020 by the First Department of the New York Supreme Court, which identified problems with evidence and discovery. Touradji’s hedge fund has since been wound down.

At a virtual pretrial hearing this week, attorneys for both sides noted the difficulty of reconstructing events that occurred before the 2008–09 financial crisis. Touradji’s counsel, Andrew Clubok of Latham & Watkins, argued that witness recollection is unreliable nearly two decades after the alleged conversations.

A core issue for the trial is whether an enforceable oral agreement existed and, if it did, what its terms were. Earlier proceedings included testimony from Beach, Vollero and Touradji. Other industry witnesses who have testified include Todd Kantor, a former Touradji employee and founder of Encompass Capital Advisors, and Josh Goldstein, chief operating officer at Verition Capital Management, who worked at a competing firm during the period in question.

The financial exposure has grown over time because interest has accrued on the originally claimed amounts. The current estimate of about $165 million reflects damages plus accumulated interest since the initial complaint was filed in 2008. The case will return to trial later this month in New York state court.