Ex-Bull Scottie Pippen Blames Law Firm for Bad Investments, Seeks $8M at Trial
A famous former basketball player for the Chicago Bulls says he lost money because an Illinois law firm didn’t do enough due diligence on the trusted adviser who allegedly cost him millions in bad investments.
Scottie Pippen has already settled for $1.5 million with the bankrupt adviser, Robert Lunn. But he is seeking another $8 million from Pedersen & Houpt, reports the Courier-News.
In addition to contending that the Chicago firm should have looked more closely at the $1 million he spent for a share in a 25-year-old Gulfstream jet and a $3.25 million real estate investment he made on the city’s far South Side that eventually failed, counsel for Pippen also argues in his malpractice suit against the firm that Pedersen & Houpt had a conflict of interest.
Because a law firm partner also made an investment in the same real estate venture that cost Pippen $3.25 million, Pedersen & Houpt put undue trust in Lunn, contended attorney George Spellmire yesterday in his opening statement in the Cook County Circuit Court case, the newspaper recounts.
Representing the law firm, attorney Peter Sullivan called the case a “blame game” in the opening statement for the defense, and said the evidence will show Pippen is “trying to find a scapegoat for a bad business decision—a number of bad business decisions.”
Pippen was playing for the Portland Trail Blazers at the time of the 2002 Gulfstream purchase.
