Lennox Paton

Banking & Financial Services Corporate & Commercial Insolvency & Restructuring Investment Funds Private Client Trust & Foundations

Since joining the Banking and Finance Group at Lennox Paton in 2006, Castino has worked with leading practitioners from around the world on cutting-edge deals.

He has advised a Bahamas-based investment fund that entered into a settlement agreement with the trustee appointed in the winding up of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.

As a part of the settlement agreement, the trustee agreed with the fund having an allowed claim in the Madoff liquidation of more than $1 billion. The allowed claim was assigned to a special purpose vehicle in exchange for shares in the capital of the special purpose vehicle (each share initially represented a notional amount of $1 of allowed claim). The allowed claim was securitized and sold at auction to distressed debt investors.

This transaction was quite unique at the time, as it enabled investors in the fund to monetize their interest in the allowed claim.

Additionally, Castino has acted as local Bahamian counsel to one of the largest banking institutions in Brazil, structuring unique security packages for its financing activities.

He has also advised on some of the more problematic issues of the Bahamian legal and regulatory regime, including the cross-border offering and sale of foreign securities into The Bahamas; and the insolvency regime applicable to investment vehicles domiciled under Bahamian law and structured as limited partnerships and unit trusts.

The Bahamas Bar Association

Castino gained an AA (Hons) in law and criminal justice from The College of The Bahamas and an LLB (2:1, Hons) from the University of Buckingham in the UK. He returned to The Bahamas for professional training and was awarded a Certificate of Legal Education from the Eugene Dupuch Law School in Nassau, where he graduated as the top overall student in his year.