Bradley Trust et al. v. Zenith Capital LLC, et al.

Outcome: settlement very favorable to clients

Description: Clients, a registered investment adviser and its managing members, had placed numerous investor clients in a hedge fund. After five years of solid investment returns, the SEC shut down the hedge fund as an illegal Ponzi scheme. Numerous investor clients who lost money at the end sued our RIA clients in state and federal courts (over a dozen cases all told), with the total claims in excess of $40M. The plaintiffs sued our RIA clients for negligence and fraud. We defended each case vigorously, preparing them for trial. As is often the case if you're prepared and willing to go to trial, the other side blinks, and all of the cases brought by former investor clients have now been settled. All of the settlements were on terms extremely favorable to our clients. In the last settlement (2 days before jury selection), in which the plaintiffs lost approximately $8M in the Ponzi scheme, the settlement amount was for less than the plaintiffs had paid to their expert witness in the 6 months leading up to the trial! One of the client reviews found on my profile page here on AVVO is from one of the managing members of the RIA. Please check out his recommendation.