2nd Miami Trustee charged with Fraud

http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2011/03/03/bankruptcy-trustee-marika-tolz-charged.html


Court-appointed receiver and bankruptcy trustee Marika Tolz has been charged with felony fraud.


Tolz stands accused of misappropriating at least $16 million in several court cases, resulting in about $2.4 million in losses to parties in the cases. The alleged fraud and missing funds had been disclosed in mid-2010 in civil investigations; Tolz had been removed from a federal panel of bankruptcy trustees.

U.S. Trustees Taking on Banks in Foreclosure Mess

The U.S. Trustee Program is stepping up its scrutiny of the veracity of banks' foreclosure claims against borrowers, the New York Times reported yesterday. After examining their foreclosure practices for flaws in mortgage documentation and other procedures, many of the nation’s largest banks have resumed - or will soon resume - trying to evict defaulted borrowers. JPMorgan Chase, for example, told investors this month that it had extensively reviewed its foreclosure controls, trained personnel in the unit and started new procedures to ensure that all legal requirements would be met when it moves to seize a property in default. While banks may have booted a few robo-signers and tightened up some lax procedures, one question at the heart of the foreclosure mess refuses to go away: whether institutions trying to take back a property can prove they even have the right to foreclose at all. Trustees in other parts of the country have intervened in borrower cases, but many of these actions have been related to questionable foreclosure fees or to dubious legal or documentation practices. The shift to a broader focus on the issue of standing suggests that the courts may no longer accept at face value the banks? arguments that they have the right to foreclose or represent the institution that does.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/business/28gret.html

Bankruptcy Trustee's are getting agressive

Bankruptcy trustees are increasingly laying claim to more brokers' commissions, often long after they have likely been spent, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. One recent case, filed against more than 45 broker-dealers, seeks to recover $251 million in damages plus interest, including the return of about $34 million in fees and commissions they received for selling private placements in Provident Royalties LLC. The SEC charged Provident with securities fraud in 2009, alleging in a civil complaint that the offerings were effectively a Ponzi scheme. Broker-dealers named in the suit include Securities America Inc., a unit of Ameriprise Financial Inc., and independent broker-dealer QA3 Financial Corp., both based in Nebraska. Trustees in bankruptcy are increasingly eyeing commissions and fees that advisers receive from issuers in exchange for selling certain investments, said Prof. Jack Williams of the Georgia State


University College of Law. A trustee in a bankruptcy case involving Stanford Financial Group, for example, targeted $40 million of fees, commissions and loans received by 66 former Stanford financial advisers who sold the firm's purportedly high-yielding CDs. The SEC filed fraud charges in 2009 against jailed Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, who is awaiting trial, for running an alleged $7 billion Ponzi scheme involving sales of the CDs. The trustee is trying to recoup a total of $925 million for investors. Adopting a fee-only structure, in which the adviser charges hourly or based on a percentage of a portfolio's value, would likely insulate broker-dealers from clawback cases in bankruptcy proceedings, Williams said.