by Structured Settlement Watchdog®
While employed at the New York personal injury firm of Paris & Chaikin from July 2010 to October 2013, Thomas Rubino forged the signatures of 76 New York state judges on structured settlement transfer orders as part of a total of 234 counts of forgery on 117 falsified orders and other documents.
The story which the industry has known about for 2 years, made the front page of the New York Post with the headline “Law and Forger” (see below).
NY Personal Injury Law Firm also Represented Structured Settlement Factoring Companies in New York
In addition to its personal injury practice, Paris & Chaikin represented settlement purchasers, such as JG Wentworth, Woodbridge Structured Funding and Stone Street Capital, in the acquisition of structured settlement payment rights from personal injury victims just like its own clients.
Settlement purchasers, mistakenly referred to as structured settlement companies in the Statement of Facts for the Rubino indictment, buy structured settlement payment rights from recipients and then either sell or assign those rights to third parties. Alternatively, the receivables may be bundled into securities and sold to institutional investors.
New York DA Indictment Confuses Terms
The indictment by the New York DA confuses terms that do not accurately represent the actual events, serving as regrettable evidence of the extent to which the secondary market has thrived on marketing and false advertising, owing to an egregious absence of regulation throughout the United States.
Structured Settlement Factoring Companies DO NOT purchase structured settlement annuities
The indictment, published by the New York Law Journal refers to ” structured settlement companies buying annuities from the annuity holder”. This is simply inaccurate.
What’s the Difference? There’s a BIG Difference!
- A company that purchases structured settlement payments is a settlement purchaser. Hence the trade association National Association of Settlement Purchasers (NASP).
- With a structured settlement, the annuity holder is generally the qualified assignment company. Even if structured settlement payment rights are acquired by transfer, the annuity itself is still owned or held by the qualified assignment company. To be certain what the correct terminology is let’s summarize
- People receiving structured settlements own the rights to the structured settlement payments. They do not own the annuity.
- A structured settlement buyer is paying a lump sum today to the seller in exchange for the transfer of the future payment rights.
- Structured settlement payment rights are known as receivables, structured settlement receivables. Investors who buy structured settlement payments rights enter into what is known as a Receivables Purchase Agreement. They are not buying an annuity. It is not an insurance product.
- The amount that the seller receives is negotiable and may vary between settlement purchasers selling the receivable.
The New York Structured Settlement Protection Act requires the approval of a justice of the New York Supreme Court
The Court must ensure that each transfer, each transaction, is in the best interest of the annuitant and applicable dependents
Thomas Rubino was arrested on September 16, 2015. In his confession he stated that he was at first overseen by Ian Chaikin,but over time he worked on cases without oversight. He summarizes his confession by stating the following: THE FORGED ORDERS OCCURRED BECAUSE OF A COMBINATION OF REASONS:
Rubino said he was:
- Overworked
- Not Supervised
- Not Provided Enough Guidance
- Wanted to Help People Get the Money They Needed
Despite his confession, the forger, Thomas Rubino, pled “Not Guilty”
Lawsuits were filed against Paris & Chaikin in June by Woodbridge, JG Wentworth and Stone Street Capital. 60 emails with forged structured settlement orders provided by Stone Street Capital and 57 emails and one fax with forged structured settlement transfer orders provided by JG Wentworth. It appears from the supporting documents that the fraud against Woodbridge was a lottery case.
For more, please read:
The People of the State of New York against Thomas Rubino Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County Index 3525/2015
Criminal Indictment Against Thomas Rubino Rubino Confession