Benjamin Reichard

Fishman Haygood’s Benjamin Reichard enjoys a diverse practice, including securities arbitration, construction disputes, environmental law, and general commercial litigation. He also heads the firm’s international arbitration practice.

Ben was among the group of lead counsel for investors defrauded in R. Allen Stanford’s $7 billion Ponzi scheme. In their lawsuit, investors alleged that five banks aided and abetted or knowingly participated in the scheme. Settlements totaling $1.6 billion were reached with five bank defendants on the eve of trial.

Currently, he represents the Official Stanford Investors Committee Ponzi in its claims against The Bank of New York Mellon arising from the Stanford Ponzi scheme and also represents other investment fraud victims in several different cases pending in federal court and in private arbitration against third-party aiders. Additionally, he has represented individual investors in state court for third-party liability claims arising out of Ponzi schemes.

Ben’s international arbitration practice is centered in the area of investor-state arbitration. He currently serves as lead counsel representing contractors, developers, financial consortiums, and individual investors in confidential arbitrations against sovereign nations arising out of multi-hundred-million-dollar large-scale construction, infrastructure, and industrial development projects, as well as disputes relating to government malfeasance and failure to protect individual investors’ interests.

In other arbitration matters, Ben has represented a range of clients—from individual investors to hedge funds to banks—in proceedings against prime brokers, auditors, clearing brokers, broker-dealers, and financial advisors. He also has extensive experience in complex ERISA and antitrust litigation.


Updated Oct 2025

• Lead counsel representing Akgun Inşaat (Akgun), a Turkish industrial zone developer, in a PCA arbitration against the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia related to Ethiopia’s termination of Akgun’s industrial zone project in Ethiopia. Akgun prevailed on the question of the Tribunal’s jurisdiction to adjudicate its claims and its claim asserting that Ethiopia violated its obligation of fair and equitable treatment under the Ethiopia-Turkey Bilateral Investment Treaty. The Tribunal awarded Akgun damages exceeding $10 milion and Akgun is commencing its enforcement efforts.
  
  
• Co-lead counsel representing Ustay Inşaat (Ustay), a Turkish construction company in an ICC arbitration against the State of Libya related to Libya’s failure to pay Ustay a settlement agreement, failure to recompense Ustay for a road construction project that Ustay performed in Libya, and failure to recompense Ustay for an urban infrastructure design and construction project that Ustay was awarded. Ustay prevailed on the question of the Tribunal’s jurisdiction to hear its claims, and Ustay prevailed on the merits with regard to its claims related to the unpaid settlement agreement and the road construction project. The Tribunal award Ustay damages in excess of $30 million. Enforcement efforts are ongoing.
  
  
• Co-lead counsel representing a Turkish construction company in an ICSID arbitration against a South Asian state related to the state’s failure to calculate and remit to the construction company the value of its residual rights under a road construction contract that the state terminated. The construction company prevailed on the question of the Tribunal’s jurisdiction to hear its claims, prevailed on the question of the attribution of the actions of the state’s National Highway Authority, and succeeded in having the Tribunal appoint an independent engineer to calculate the value of the construction company’s residual rights under terminated contract.
  
  
• Represents the Official Stanford Investors Committee (OSIC), with claimed damages exceeding $5 billion, resulting from the infamous Stanford International Bank certificate of deposit Ponzi scheme. OSIC asserts aiding and abetting claims against Bank of New York Mellon for its role in providing banking services to the Stanford International Bank and its affiliated entities, facilitating investors’ purchases of fraudulent CDs.
  
  
• Represented individuals and the Official Stanford Investor’s Committee against five banks, with particular concentration on claims against Trustmark National Bank and Independent Bank of Texas (formerly known as Bank of Houston), in a lawsuit alleging the banks’ aiding and abetting of the $7 billion Ponzi scheme perpetrated by R. Allen Stanford. Settlements of $100 million were reached with both Trustmark and Bank of Houston in early 2023, with total recoveries from all five bank defendants (The Toronto-Dominion Bank, Société Générale Private Banking (Suisse) S.A., HSBC Bank plc, Trustmark, and Bank of Houston) amounting to more than $1.6 billion.

• Class action
• Commercial
• Commercial disputes
• Competition/antitrust
• Construction
• Environmental
• International arbitration
• Plaintiff
• Securities

• Construction and materials
• Financial services
• Investment management

• J.D., high honors - Chicago-Kent College of Law - 2008
• B.A. in Classics, magna cum laude - Amherst College - 2001

• Louisiana State Bar Association (2008)
• Federal Bar Association (2008)
• Colorado Bar Association (2019)
• International Bar Association (2024)
• New Orleans Bar Association

• Louisiana - 2008
• Texas - 2015
• Colorado - 2019
• Washington - 2019