Perhaps inspired by the “successful” financial scams of Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff, Denver area business man Shawn Merriman recently bilked investors over a three state area of more than $20 million dollars by promising unusually high returns on his victims’ “investments”. It turns out that the only investments Merriman was making on behalf of his victims were in his own lavish lifestyle. ...
More and more Denver businesses are recognizing the opportunities for hiring a plaintiff’s injury lawyer on a contingency fee basis for their business litigation needs. These high risk/high reward cases are being handled by injury lawyers because Colorado businesses understand that their recoveries will be maximized by seasoned litigators. Business litigation in Colorado follows a national trend. ...
About a week ago, in a post titled Colorado Business Litigation: Does Colorado Recognize a “Declaimer Defense” for Feeder Funds? I reported that sophisticated auditors for feeder funds sometimes rely upon disclaimers as a “pretend justification” for ignoring their due diligence responsibilities to their feeder fund clients. For example, the national accounting firm of BDO Seidman knew that its ...
Ina previous blog post, Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme: Feeder Fund Liability, I discussed a Denver based investment firm who, as a feeder fund, found themselves tangled up in Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme. I would now like to look at some of the challenges of litigating these types of cases. Colorado business litigation suits against feeder funds include claims for fraud, negligence, and breach of fiduciary duty. ...
One of Madoff’s victims was a feeder fund named Ascot Partners. New York Law School invested $3,000,000 of its endowment funds in Ascot. When Madoff’s scheme fell apart, Ascot was unable to repay New York Law School its $3,000,000 investment. In recognition of the substantial legal and practical roadblocks to a lawsuit against Madoff and the feeder fund Ascot, New York Law School instead sued BDO ...