Investor Points Finger at Holland & Knight Over Nadel Disclosure Forms
An investor who says he lost $1.85 million in a claimed $397 million fraud allegedly orchestrated by Arthur Nadel is accusing an international law firm of having helped prepare documents for funds Nadel controlled that failed to disclose critical information about his background.
In a federal lawsuit filed today, Holland & Knight is accused by Chicago-based investor Michael Sullivan of helping prepare documents that allegedly were deficient. The documents failed to make clear, the suit contends, that Nadel—who allegedly was described in the documents that Sullivan saw as a law school graduate—is also not only a disbarred attorney but, as the St. Petersburg Times puts it, a lawyer “disbar[red] in New York for taking money from a client’s escrow account to pay off loan sharks.”
A spokeswoman for Holland & Knight tells the newspaper that the 1,125-attorney law firm has done nothing wrong and intends to defend the lawsuit vigorously.
The suit, which was filed by the Tampa office of John Pope Bokor Ruppel & Burns, seeks class action status. Click here (PDF) to read the complaint.
Related coverage:
Bradenton Herald: “Law firm sued in case tied to Nadel”
St. Petersburg Times: “Arthur Nadel’s attorneys lose bid to free funds for defense”
ABAJournal.com: “Disbarred Lawyer in $20M+ Fraud Case Turns Himself In”
ABAJournal.com: “Latest Missing Money Manager Was a Disbarred Lawyer”
Updated at 3 p.m. on March 24 to include link to subsequent Bradenton Herald article.
