2nd Circuit Court

Lawyer Won $2.4M for Client, But Should Get No Attorney Fee, 2nd Circuit Says

In what the 2nd Circuit describes in a written opinion as a close case, the appeals court has upheld a lower court decision to award no attorney fee to a former New York lawyer who won a $2.4 million settlement for his client in a medical malpractice case. Because Steven…

Jan 7, 2009 9:03 PM CST

Ex Allegedly Outwits NY Tax Attorney in ‘Sexcapades’ Case

A New York tax attorney has been federally charged with extortion and harassment after allegedly threatening to send a secretly recorded, sexually explicit DVD to an unidentified former lover’s family members if she didn’t e-mail him revealing photos of herself. Instead of sending the photos, however, the woman reportedly went…

Jan 7, 2009 7:30 PM CST

Latest Madoff Issues: Jewelry ‘Gifts’ Rile Feds, Judge OKs 3rd-Party Asset Freeze

At the request of New York University, a New York judge has extended a previous order preventing a $1.5 billion hedge fund and a limited investment partnership, as well as the man who operates them, from liquidating assets after losses they reportedly suffered by investing money with Bernard Madoff. NYU…

Jan 6, 2009 5:57 PM CST

Why Madoff Warnings Were Ignored: Regulators Had Wrong Incentives

For nine years, Harry Markopolos tried to persuade the SEC that Bernard Madoff must be running an investment scam, contending that the strategy he claimed to be using didn’t match up with known facts such as the volume of trading on the options market. But, despite numerous investigations by the…

Jan 5, 2009 9:53 PM CST

Madoff Trustee Provides Claim Info

Lawyers representing clients who lost money investing in Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme may wish to take a close look at the newspaper. A court-appointed trustee for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities has mailed off claim forms to more than 8,000 investors, but claim information is printed as…

Jan 5, 2009 8:33 PM CST

How Former Dreier Client Became a Co-Defendant in Claimed $200M Scheme

In 2006, Kosta Kovachev consented, without admitting wrongdoing, to a $358,146 judgment in a civil Securities and Exchange Commission case. It concerned an alleged timeshare-sales Ponzi scheme involving 10 defendants and claimed profits of $28 million. His attorney at the time was Marc Dreier. By 2008, Kovachev, a 57-year-old Harvard…

Jan 5, 2009 6:10 PM CST

Where Was Compliance, as Madoff Allegedly Lost $50B?

Compliance is suddenly a hot topic, in the wake of the Bernard Madoff scandal. Specifically, how is it possible that his investment firm allegedly could have lost $50 billion in a claimed Ponzi scheme without anyone else at the firm figuring out that something was wrong? (Of course, the SEC…

Dec 23, 2008 8:32 PM CST

Another Person is Charged in Alleged $100M Dreier Fraud

A former broker who reportedly also may have been a former client of the Dreier law firm has been criminally charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and allegedly helped Dreier’s founding partner swindle more than $100 million from two unidentified hedge funds. Kosta Kovachev, 57, is accused of pretending…

Dec 23, 2008 5:57 PM CST

Bad Year Gets Worse for Eliot Spitzer: His Real Estate Firm Invested With Madoff

Surely 2008 must already have been a year that former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer won’t remember as a particularly good one, after resigning from office over a prostitution scandal. But it’s just gotten even worse for Spitzer, who is also a former state attorney general known for his crusades…

Dec 19, 2008 11:23 PM CST

How SEC Probe Missed Alleged $50B Madoff Fraud, Despite 2000 Tip

Pressured by his boss at a Boston investment firm to amp up results, after a colleague came back from a trip to New York with news of Bernard Madoff’s stellar hedge fund returns, Harry Markopolos tried to figure out how Madoff was doing it. Try as he might, Markopolos and…

Dec 18, 2008 10:28 PM CST

FOX Files FOIA Suit to Get Treasury Info About $700B Bailout

FOX Business Network has sued the U.S. Treasury in federal court in New York, saying that the agency has stonewalled Freedom of Information Act requests for information concerning its expenditures under the $700 billion federal bailout bill. “The television network, a unit of News Corp., said in a release that…

Dec 18, 2008 8:54 PM CST

Good News for Creditors: Dreier Firm Has $100M-$500M, Owes Up to $50M

Although the Dreier law firm apparently is significantly behind on numerous bills, including its rent, the firm’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing (PDF) on Tuesday contained good news for creditors. In it, receiver Mark Pomerantz estimates that the law firm has between $100 million and $500 million in assets and $10…

Dec 18, 2008 7:31 PM CST

3rd Parties Will Pay for Alleged $50B Madoff Fraud, Experts Predict

For those who invested in the claimed $50 billion Ponzi scheme allegedly run by Bernard Madoff under the guise of a hedge fund, exactly how they invested in the hedge fund could be crucial in determining whether they get their money back. Those who put their money directly into the…

Dec 17, 2008 8:32 PM CST

NY Law School Leads Litigant Pack in Suits Over Alleged $50B Madoff Fraud

Less than a week after Bernard Madoff’s claimed $50 billion hedge fund fraud first came to light, lawsuits are already being filed. Among the prime targets are apparent victims of the fraud who allegedly didn’t do enough to investigate before recommending the massive Ponzi scheme to others. And front and…

Dec 17, 2008 12:01 AM CST

Why Wasn’t Madoff’s Alleged $50B Ponzi Scheme Discovered Earlier?

After staggering news last week that the longtime head of a respected Wall Street investment firm had allegedly been running a massive $50 billion Ponzi scheme under the guise of a hedge fund for years, there has been fallout on many fronts. As victims lawyer up, both the Securities and…

Dec 16, 2008 6:25 PM CST