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On March 14, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied a motion by Citibank, N.A. for leave to file an interlocutory appeal of a bankruptcy court’s order denying a motion to dismiss fraudulent...more
On February 1, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion, held that a bank’s professional liability insurance includes coverage for a $32 million settlement payment the bank made to...more
Publicly, Diamond Finance Co. (“Diamond”) provided car loans to individuals with less-than-stellar credit. While Diamond did have “some actual business,” its purpose “quickly became a front to lure unsuspecting investors.”...more
Two recent decisions in the Madoff bankruptcy cases illustrate that the legacy of Bernie Madoff will long survive the man himself. Bernie Madoff died on April 14, 2021, while incarcerated in the Federal Medical Center in...more
On September 13, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed dismissal of claims for fraudulent transfer and aiding and abetting a Ponzi scheme brought by one lender to a series of companies owned by Tom...more
On August 31, 2022, Plaintiff Melanie E. Damian, in her capacity as the Court-Appointed Receiver for Today’s Growth Consultant, Inc. d/b/a The Income Store (“TGC”) (the “Receiver”) filed a complaint against Defendant Core...more
On June 3, 2022, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas refused to extend the “ponzi-scheme presumption” in connection with an actual intent fraudulent transfer claim because there was no actual ponzi...more
Schwartz v. McGregor was filed in the District Court of Denver County, Colorado on January 10, 2022, seeking relief under Colorado’s Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, C.R.S. § 38-8-101-112 (“CUFTA”), including a turnover and...more
Geoff Winkler, as Receiver for Profit Connect Wealth Services, Inc. v. William Roshak, et al. was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada on November 4, 2021 asserting claims for (1) fraudulent...more
In In re Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, 12 F.4th 171 (2d Cir. 2021), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit revived litigation filed by the trustee administering the assets of defunct investment firm...more
The collapse of a Ponzi scheme usually follows a familiar pattern. When the scheme is exposed, the company created by the schemer—which is usually little more than a sham entity—is placed into receivership or declares...more
In the latest chapter of more than a decade of litigation involving efforts to recover fictitious profits paid to certain customers of Bernard Madoff's defunct brokerage firm as part of the largest Ponzi scheme in history,...more
GE Energy Power Conversion France SAS, Corp. v. Outokumpu Stainless USA, LLC, Case No. 18–1048 (2020). Equitable estoppel principles (such as non-signatories being able to compel arbitration of disputes) can be applied in...more
The First Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion on October 29, 2019, in In re TelexFree, LLC, No. 18-2001, 2019 WL 5558088, at *1 (1st Cir. Oct. 29, 2019) that has significant consequences for ponzi scheme litigation in...more
On February 25, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit) ruled that the trustee in the Chapter 11 case for Madoff Investment Securities, LLC could use the U.S. Bankruptcy Code to recover payments made between foreign...more
Q: I am a receiver in a Ponzi scheme case. While I know I can sue to recover excess payments made to investors in the scheme, the false profit they were paid, per Donell v. Kowell, 533 F3d 762 (9th Cir. 2008), in my case...more
The ability of a bankruptcy trustee to avoid fraudulent or preferential transfers is a fundamental part of U.S. bankruptcy law. However, when an otherwise avoidable transfer by a U.S. entity takes place outside the U.S. to a...more
Troice v. Greenberg Traurig, L.L.P., No. 17-11464 (4/17/19 5th Cir. 2019) - Brief Summary - The Fifth Circuit recently declined to recognize exceptions to the general rule of attorney immunity to non-clients for (1)...more
The Bottom Line - In vacating judgments from both the District Court and the Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York, the Second Circuit held, in In re Picard, 917 F.3d 85 (2d Cir. 2019), that the trustee...more
On February 25, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a decision holding that a trustee is not barred by either the presumption against extraterritoriality or by international comity...more
On February 25, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated the bankruptcy court’s dismissal of avoidance actions brought by Irving Picard, the trustee (Trustee) for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff...more
In a unanimous 25 February panel decision, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals held that the trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff's investment firm can claw back billions in Ponzi scheme proceeds from investors who received...more
In Picard v. BAM LP (In re Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC), Adv. Pro. No. 10-04390 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. Jan. 18, 2019), a matter arising out of the Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Bernard Madoff through Bernard L. Madoff...more
Fraudulent transfer law allows creditors and bankruptcy trustees, under certain circumstances, to sue transferees to recover funds received where a debtor’s transfers to the transferees actually or constructively defrauded...more
Bernie Madoff in New York, Tom Petters in Minneapolis, Allen Stanford in Houston, and Darren Berg in Seattle lead a rogues’ gallery of infamous Ponzi schemers. All are now serving time in prison. But the civil litigation...more