Vor: Difficult, yes. The problem in this case is not proving wilful misrepresentation, but rather proving plaintiffs were injured by relying on those misrepresentations, since it's pretty clear the TE haven't believed NLC's numbers from Day One. But that's common-law fraud.
However- jeez, this is NY law- somewhere in the back of my head I dimly recall the existence of a NY statutory tort called something like 'fiduciary fraud', which is pretty much strict liability any time a fiduciary knowingly and wilfully provides a false accounting.
EDIT: Aha! This might be relevant. NY 2006,
Quote:
The plaintiffs -- the surviving Beatles Richard "Ringo Starr" Starkey and Sir James Paul McCartney; Yoko Ono Lennon; George Harrison's estate; Apple Corps and Apple Records; and McCartney's company MPL Communications -- claimed that Capitol/EMI under-reported sales, concealed "lucrative" music-video deals and conducted "secret" transactions with record clubs, among other misdeeds. As in Apple I, a primary accusation was that the record company designated millions of dollars of merchandise as discardable "scrap," then resold the items without forwarding royalties.
The Court permitted all three counts- breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and fraud- to go forward.
2D EDIT: Can't find anything on 'fiduciary fraud' (although it might explain that puzzling 'constructive trust' count)- but it does appear that NY counts specious overbilling as fraud- and that presumably would extend to debiting fictitious 'costs' against the plaintiffas' participation. "Aggressive earnings management" of the Enron sort is generally accepted a a species of fraud.