You guys seen this? Crazy stuff. Why would this big shot lawyer do something so stupid??!! STAR LAWYER IN FRAUD BUST STRAHAN'S HOT-SHOT PAL JAILED IN CANADA Last updated: 11:49 am December 5, 2008 Posted: 1:58 am December 5, 2008 The founder of a high-profile Manhattan law firm - and close friend of retired Giant Michael Strahan - has been arrested in Canada on charges of criminal impersonation, The Post has learned. The powerful white-shoe lawyer, Marc Dreier, 58, was arrested on Wednesday and is cooling his heels in a grimy jail cell just west of Toronto. "He is in provincial custody in Maplehurst Correctional Complex," said an employee at the Ontario pokey. His bust stems from his alleged role in a multimillion fraud case, a source told The Post... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/nyregion/06lawyer.html?em http://www.nypost.com/seven/12062008/news/regionalnews/attorney_gets_caught_in_act_142896.htm http://www.nypost.com/seven/12052008/news/nationalnews/star_lawyer_in_fraud_bust_142778.htm
Wow. This guy is a real scumbag: Lawyer Is Accused in Massive Hedge Fund Fraud By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM and ALISON LEIGH COWAN Published: December 8, 2008 His legal lineage was impeccable. A Yale man with a law degree from Harvard, he was a litigation powerhouse, a leader at some of the more prominent firms at the New York bar who then started a top-shelf practice of his own. But when the lawyer, Marc S. Dreier, stepped off a flight from Canada on Sunday night, federal authorities in New York arrested him in a $100 million fraud scheme, portraying his recent undertakings as more high-stakes grifting than high-end lawyering. In brazen and carefully choreographed scams here and in Canada, Mr. Dreier, who in 1996 founded a 250-lawyer firm that bears his name, is said to have tried to take advantage of the current financial crisis by selling phony debt to hungry hedge funds looking for deals. But in an era when high-tech frauds and inside information seem to dominate the world of white-collar crime, the square-jawed lawyer, known for his forceful personality and his penchant for high living, apparently did it the old-fashioned way. Using little more than his position, poise and a kind of reckless bravado, he cajoled his way into accounting, real estate and pension fund offices where he had no real business, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Monday. Once there, seated in conference rooms that lent credibility to his charade, he peddled forged promissory notes â utterly worthless paper â linked in some way to his unwitting hosts, the complaint said. He backed up his claims with phony financial statements and bogus audit opinions from a reputable accounting firm, correspondence on the stationery of the New York real estate developer who supposedly issued the debt, and the help of a few confederates, the government said in court papers. With these tools and little more, he allegedly took hedge fund executives for $100 million in one instance alone, money that the authorities say remains unaccounted for... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/nyregion/09lawyer.html?_r=1&hp
Yeah, crazy story. I was reading it earlier this morning. I guess when you have the triplex apartment in Manhattan, a beach house near Southampton and a 120 ft yacht what's left to do with your life? Hard to understand this story but it does confirm my basic premise about most lawyers being crooked deep down.
Marc Dreier is a Jew who belongs to the exclusive jewish Harmonie Club, while Madoff is a member of the Exclusive Jewish Palm Beach country club December 14, 2008 ... In court last week, prosecutors said their count so far put the money missing at $380 million, most of it lost by hedge funds and other investors who had bought promissory notes that were flat-out fictions. In recent days, Dreier LLP, the Park Avenue law firm that Dreier founded, has been plunged into chaos. At least $35 million in escrow that was to have been held by the firm seems to be missing, the authorities say, and nearly all of its 250 lawyers are now looking for work. The amounts pale next to the $50 billion fraud that another high-profile New York figure, Bernard Madoff, was accused last week of orchestrating, but they have unnerved lawyers and their clients in the broader legal community. .... Dreier, who grew up on Long Island, the son of a refugee from Poland who owned movie theaters, evolved into a bon vivant who belonged to the Harmonie Club and was a staple of high-wattage charity events. As a lawyer, Dreier could be aggressive, as was evident when he was reprimanded in 2004 by a bankruptcy court judge. The judge found that Dreier had, on Solow's behalf, played a role in placing false legal ads that highlighted the financial debts of a Solow Realty rival, Peter Kalikow. The judge called the ads "an affront to the court" and "somewhat sleazy." Two years later, though, Dreier still did some work for the Solow firm and relied on that connection to convince Wall Street veterans that he was legitimately selling promissory notes issued by the company. In 2007, one investment house, Perella Weinberg Partners, bought a company that had purchased the supposed Solow paper through Dreier, someone familiar with the situation said. The investment firm has told its investors it had no reason to be overly suspicious about the notes because someone, ostensibly Dreier, had been paying interest on them in a timely manner. Now worthless, those and other notes purchased through Dreier were valued by the firm in November at $45 million, roughly 4 percent of the portfolio holding them. A subpoena shows the government is seeking information about a dozen more hedge funds that may have been defrauded. ... http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/14/business/14lawyer.php?page=2