West Palm Beach Injury Lawyer
Madoff Litigation
Florida Madoff Victims Need Aggressive Legal Representation
Bernard L. Madoff, formerly trusted and respected New York trader, fund manager and former Chief of NASDQ, shocked the world of finance on December 12, 2008 when it was reported that he suddenly confessed to staff and family that he lost up to $50 billion of investor funds in what has been described as the largest Ponzi scheme and financial fraud in history. The apparent investor victims include charities, international and hedge fund groups, individuals, billionaires, brokerage traders, institutions, old and new family money and public and private retirement accounts and non-profit organizations.
The private auditors for Madoff, Friehling & Horowitz turned out to be a small CPA firm with less than five employees located in a single room in a New York strip shopping mall. This seems hardly sufficient to audit and serve the legendary and seemingly profitable investment strategist of Wall Street.
Somehow defying investigations into his activities by the U.S. government, Madoff and his companies continued for more than 20 years collecting new investor funds and using those funds to pay interest to older investor clients. All of this while Madoff luxuriated in homes, society circles and private clubs in New York and Palm Beach.
Madoff traveled extensively and collected investors of small and great wealth. It was he, who over 17 years allegedly produced a consistent rate of return nearing 10.5%, with little or no real volatility, unheard of in traditional investment strategy.
Was Wall Street, the U.S. government and your own team of advisers asleep at the switch?
New York lawyers have already publicly announced their plan to chase the $50 billion in missing funds for investor clients from Madoff’s other business operations and holdings, a traditional approach to fraud. But, they are in New York, unfamiliar with the Palm Beach community and the personal interrelations and social fabric of this island community.
Timing and action are the initial keys to success. Bernie Madoff is not the only potential source of funds to go after to recover investor losses. There are others to investigate and pursue: the third party liability exposure for the others who helped to make Madoff successful in Florida must be aggressively pursued before funds paid against claims are all gone.
Both active and passive local co-conspirators with Madoff, and those people who exploited their friends, neighbors and acquaintances in exchange for money privately paid to them for referrals may be liable to pay damages for investor losses. Brokers, Certified Public Accountants, money managers, members of boards of directors, lawyers and professional firms who failed to fulfill their professional duty to their clients may also stand to pay these losses caused in part by their professional malpractice from their own accounts or from errors & omissions insurance coverage or from other liability insurance policies.
An understanding of Florida law, third party liability exposure law, and insurance coverage exposures and effective litigation skills are innovative tools to maximize possible recoveries. Before potential local defendants and their firms, acting on advice of management or counsel, destroy valuable evidence of their potential wrongdoing and extinguish your opportunity to make a recovery locally for your losses, consider meeting with and hiring Gary Roberts & Associates, P.A., a West Palm Beach civil trial law firm.
Our law firm can pursue those third parties who may have wronged you and facilitated your investor losses by their active assistance and payments from Madoff and by their inattention to your private financial well-being. Our law firm is rated AV by the prestigious Martindale-Hubbell law rating service, its highest rating in both proficiency and for ethics.
The lawyers of Gary Roberts & Associates, P.A. have handled professional negligence claims and battled the insurance industry for more than 30 years in State and Federal courts. Senior partner Gary W. Roberts, Esq. is a Florida Bar Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer, who for more than 35 years, has litigated in state and federal courts pursuing insurance companies, fraud and negligence claims for individuals and businesses.
Attorney Gary Robert’s clients have included Xerox Corporation, movie stars, professional athletes, the Palm Beach Jai Alai Fronton, two Palm Beach county sheriffs, a Florida municipality, law enforcement professionals, prestigious Florida law firms and lawyers, and families across Florida. He lectures to lawyers and other professionals on a host of legal subjects and publishes articles on litigation subjects in professional legal journals and periodicals across the United States. He is a member of the American Association of Justice, served on the Editorial Board of The Florida Bar Journal, is a member of Florida Association of Justice, American Bar Association and in 1989 was a Founding Fellow of the Southern Trial Lawyers Association and currently serves on its Board of Governors.
