Two of R. Allen Stanford’s former law firms were sued by defrauded investors who claim the lawyers crafted corporate structures that enabled the financier’s $7 billion Ponzi scheme for more than 20 years. The proposed class-action, or group, lawsuit filed in federal court in Dallas by investors and Stanford’s court- appointed receiver seeks the return of $10 million in legal fees and more than $7 billion in damages from Greenberg Traurig LLP and Hunton & Williams LLP.
These law firms employed Miami attorney Carlos Loumiet, who served as Stanford’s outside general counsel, from 1988 through 2009. Yolanda Suarez, Stanford’s former chief of staff and general counsel, also worked at Greenberg Traurig before joining Stanford Financial Group Co. in 1992. Suarez, a former protégée of Loumiet described in the complaint as Stanford’s “right- hand,” is named as an individual defendant, while Loumiet isn’t. More on Bloomberg [...]
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Two former accounting executives at Stanford Financial Group Co. should be convicted of helping Texas financier R. Allen Stanford conceal the theft of billions of dollars from investors at his offshore bank, U.S. prosecutors told a Houston jury. The government asked jurors to reject claims by ex-Chief Accounting Officer Gilbert Lopez, 70, and former Global Controller Mark Kuhrt, 40, that they were duped by Stanford and his finance chief into creating false financial statements, which investors relied on to buy $7 billion of fraudulent certificates of deposit from Antigua-based Stanford International Bank Ltd. More on Bloomberg Businessweek [...] WASHINGTON (AP) — A House panel says credit rating agencies and federal regulators contributed to MF Global’s collapse last year. But it pinned most of the blame on ex-CEO Jon Corzine. The report issued Thursday by the House Financial Services Oversight and Investigations subcommittee found Corzine’s risky strategies caused the brokerage firm’s failure. That largely reiterated a statement released Wednesday by the committee’s Republicans. The brokerage firm was forced to seek bankruptcy protection last year, the eighth largest in U.S. history. Morethan $1 billion in customer money went missing. Corzine, a former U.S. senator and governor of New Jersey, stepped down as CEO in November 2011. More on Bloomberg Businessweek [...] Mark Madoff’s widow is fighting a court-appointed trustee’s demand for millions of dollars in cash and real estate, arguing that her husband’s suicide entitles her to the property. Mr. Madoff killed himself in 2010, two years after his father, Bernard, confessed to a massive Ponzi scheme. Lawyers for Stephanie Mack—formerly Stephanie Madoff—claim the trustee can’t seize her prenuptial-agreement proceeds or properties in Manhattan and Nantucket that she jointly owned with her husband. More in the Wall Street Journal [...] WASHINGTON — A council of top financial regulators, upset with the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to strengthen rules governing money market mutual funds since the financial crisis, is trying to force the S.E.C. to adopt stricter regulations. The Financial Stability Oversight Council, a group of 10 regulators that includes the S.E.C. chairwoman, voted Tuesday to offer three distinct alternatives and said it would recommend one or a combination of those to the S.E.C. for adoption. More in the New York Times [...] Authorities have reached a $210 million settlement with a BNY Mellon subsidiary, Ivy Asset Management, for advising clients to invest with Bernard L. Madoff, whose multibillion-dollar fraud landed him in federal prison, New York’s attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, said Tuesday. The settlement of suits filed by the attorney general, the Labor Department and private plaintiffs also provides for about $9 million in payments by other defendants. Combined with anticipated future payments from Madoff bankruptcy proceedings, Mr. Schneiderman said the settlement was expected to return nearly all of the original investments to those who were defrauded, including union pension funds from upstate New York. More in the New York Times [...] A House of Representatives panel on Thursday will release a long-awaited report that will dissect the collapse of failed commodities brokerage MF Global, the committee said on Monday. The House Financial Services Committee said its Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will post the report online at 9:30 a.m. Thursday. MF Global, which was led by former New Jersey governor and U.S. Senate Democrat Jon Corzine, filed for bankruptcy more than one year ago and left an estimated $1.6 billion in customer funds missing. More on Reuters [...] A Bank of New York Mellon Corp. BK -0.29% unit will pay $210 million to resolve a series of lawsuits by clients who claimed they suffered losses in Bernard Madoff’s massive fraud, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said on Tuesday. The settlement with Ivy Asset Management LLC resolves litigation by the attorney general’s office, the U.S. Department of Labor and investors. An additional $9 million will be contributed by other individual defendants in the cases. Combined with future amounts investors anticipate receiving in the Madoff bankruptcy proceeding, the settlement is expected to return all or nearly all the original investment to those Ivy investors defrauded by Mr. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. More in the Wall Street Journal [...] Ponzi schemer given stiff sentence David Weber, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission internal watchdog who was put on leave after co-workers accused him of being a security threat, has been fired by the agency, his lawyer said. Weber, who was chief investigator in the inspector general’s office, raised allegations in March that H. David Kotz, the agency’s former inspector general, may have had personal relationships that tainted reports on the SEC’s failure to catch the Bernard Madoff and R. Allen Stanford Ponzi schemes. More on Bloomberg Businessweek [...] |
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