by John Darer® CLU ChC MSSC RSP CLTC
Investing in structured settlement receivables is about to be prime time TV in Fort Lauderdale. The tales of money laundering, a gold plated "crapper" and Swiss Bank accounts are just a start . Then there are lawyers who are supposed to be doing due diligence for investors in structured settlement receivables, who allegedly do not have a clue in what resulted in a more than $13,000,000 loss.
D3 Capital Club, a limited liability company with investors, including Dean Kretschmar, has filed suit against incarcerated Ponzi schemer former Fort Lauderdale lawyer Scott Rothstein and the other name partners of his former law firm, Stuart Rosenfeldt and Russell S. Adler in Broward County Florida on March 21, 2016 [Case: CACE-16-005094]. The suit which stems from the billion dollar Ponzi scheme exposed in October 2009 also named and heavily targets the law firm of Morgan Lewis & Bockius, which states it "sees its clients as partners" and slams Morgan Lewis for alleged shoddy due diligence.
Despite the reality that anyone who knows anything about structured settlements would know that what Scott Rothstein was peddling were not structured settlement payment rights, Morgan Lewis Bockius, the law firm who was hired to perform the due diligence for D3 Capital Club apparently believed they were and even questioned Scott Rothstein about it in relation to Florida's structured settlement protection statute.
Morgan Lewis Bockius then allegedly accepted Rothstein's answer due to the alleged detriment of investors. The investors paid how much for Morgan Bockius' alleged breach of fiduciary duty, legal malpractice? Possibly tens of thousands of dollars!
Rothstein himself in a 2011 deposition denied what he was selling were structured settlements because structured settlements would have brought more scrutiny due to the need for court approval of structured settlement transfers
The accelerated need for licensing and regulation of the structured settlement secondary and tertiary markets will continue to sharpen as more law suits are filed in the next 12 months.
