Dreier

  • 14 Apr 2009 at 10:06 AM
  • Dreier

Marc Dreier: An Update

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Marc Dreier Marc S Dreier LLP.jpgQuite some time has passed since our last discussion of Marc Dreier, the once highflying, now disgraced Manhattan litigator. We’d like to belatedly draw your attention to three items. First, an article from the New York Post:

Disgraced attorney Marc Dreier could be on the hook for $1.5 million to the white-shoe lawyers who took over his finances after he was busted in a $700 million impersonation scheme.

The eye-popping bill even includes a 27-percent discount off the fees and expenses normally charged by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, court-appointed receiver Mark Pomerantz said.

Sorting through the finances of a big-time fraudster: nice work if you can get it. No wonder Paul Weiss made it to the Final Four.

Second, if you haven’t seen it already, this New York magazine article about Marc Dreier is a must-read. It contains a detailed account of Dreier’s alleged fraud, as well as a history of his colorful career prior to his arrest. The article was written by a leading chronicler of Biglaw scandal, Robert Kolker — whom you may recall as the author of a lengthy piece about Charney v. Sullivan & Cromwell. (If you don’t have time to read the whole profile, here are some highlights.)

Third, from a tipster:

A group of us visited 499 Park last month and picked through the ashes of Dreier LLP [at a property auction]. We took this picture of a notice posted on a fridge. We thought you might get a kick out of it.

Check out the photo, after the jump.

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Morning Docket 3.25.09

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titanic.jpg* A U.S. District Judge in Virginia, Rebecca Beach Smith, will soon decide whether preserved Titanic artifacts must remain available to the public. [The San Francisco Chronicle]

* Adam Liptak gives us a lively look into the Supreme Court discussion about the highly critical Hillary documentary. [The New York Times]

* Obama’s lawyers were in lock-step with Bush policies Tuesday, arguing in favor of the decision to refuse one of Europe’s leading Muslim intellectuals entry in to the U.S. [Reuters]

* Pakistan’s supreme court chief justice returned to court Tuesday amid dancing supporters. [The Associated Press]

* Attorneys cringe as Blagojevich continues to put himself in the spotlight despite his pending federal corruption indictment. [The Associated Press]

* Dreier LLP may be able to reduce a $29 million claim from Wachovia. They need all the help they can get. [Greenwich Time]

* Barney Frank defends calling Scalia a “homophobe.” [The Boston Globe]

Morning Docket 3.23.09

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vulture.jpg* The vultures are circling around Dreier LLP’s Park Avenue office–an auctioneer’s website reads “everything must be sold,” but Dreier’s indictment last week says he must forfeit the firm’s assets–the prosecutors and bankruptcy trustee will have to fight it out. [The National Law Journal]

* “U.K. regulatory lawyers advising clients on the financial crisis and scandals bill as much $1,440 an hour.” “It’s our time in the sun,” says regulatory lawyer Darren Fox–alright Fox, wipe that smug look off your face–just because former M&A lawyers in the states can’t even get volunteer jobs–doesn’t make it OK to gloat. [Bloomberg.com]

* The Connecticut Attorney General got aggressive about AIG bonuses over the weekend. The outrage continues with new information that AIG payed out $218 million in bonuses, more than the $165 originally reported.[The Los Angeles Times]

* Enron executive Scott Yeager will be the first to bring his case before the U.S. Supreme Court. [The Houston Chronicle]

* SCOTUS will review “Hillary: The Movie,” and decide whether the scathing documentary should have been regulated as a campaign ad. [The Associated Press]

* A specialist on law firm finances says New York firms need to follow each others lead and re-shape associate pay–replacing “lockstep” with merit pay. [The Lawyer.com]

* An interesting case for the judge’s probable ruling to uphold Proposition 8 from a progressive gay marriage supporter. [The Washington Post]

Morning Docket 02.24.09

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cross.jpg

* SCOTUS will look at the separation of church and state when they decide whether “a cross to honor fallen soldiers can stand in a national preserve in California.” [The Los Angeles Times]

* Lawyers say Madoff must have had help with his Ponzi scheme. [Bloomberg]

* Attorney General Eric Holder visited Guantanamo yesterday to see what is needed to close the prison. [The Associated Press]

* Meanwhile, a Pentagon official who inspected Guantanamo at Obama’s request is under fire from human rights activists for filing a report (which declares Gitmo humane) that is little more than good public relations for the administration. [The New York Times]

* What do you do when your boss gets indicted for securities fraud? You get another job. A team of seven bankruptcy lawyers left Dreier LLP for Epstein Becker Green. [EBG]

* A federal judge encouraged the Obama administration to decide whether to keep pursuing a case against 11 Vietnam War Veterans accused of trying to overthrow Laos’s communist government. [The Associated Press]

* Judge says: UBS must respond to the U.S. lawsuit seeking disclosure of 52,000 names of people who allegedly used Swiss accounts for tax evasion. [Bloomberg]

  • 05 Feb 2009 at 3:13 PM
  • Dreier

Penthouse Arrest For EVERYONE!

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rsdss.jpg[Ed. note: This is a cross-post from one of our sister sites, Dealbreaker, which we thought you might appreciate because of its focus on an ATL celebrity: the recently indicted, high-profile litigator, Marc Dreier.]

Clearly, major fraud defendants have the best racket going- unless you just can’t live without the Deli down the street. First Madoff, now this:

A federal judge says a prominent New York lawyer accused of defrauding investors of more than $400 million can be freed under house arrest.

Judge Jed Rakoff on Thursday lifted financial requirements that had forced Marc Dreier to remain jailed.

Last month, a magistrate judge had required that Dreier produce $10 million in cash or property to secure a $20 million bail.

And we are worried about the optics of Wells Fargo going to Vegas?

Read the original post, and comment, over at DealBreaker.

On Depthlessness in the Face of Depth

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Muffie Benson Perella Dealbreaker.jpg[Ed. note: This is a cross-post from one of our sister sites, Dealbreaker, which we thought you might appreciate because of its focus on an ATL celebrity: the recently indicted, high-profile litigator, Marc Dreier.]

Muffie Benson-Perella (muffie AT muffmarkets.com) was an Associate in the Investment Banking Division of a “Bulge Bracket” bank. She holds a B.A. in French and Art from Vassar College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. She concentrated in Contemporary French Poetry at prep school where she was awarded the exclusive premiership of the school’s “French Club.” Today, Ms. Benson-Perella is the Founder and Managing Director of “Muffie on Markets” (http://www.muffmarkets.com), a deep dive into capital markets, finance and investment strategy. She is also the Founder and Managing Director of Muff Cap, LLC., an invitation only, private investment vehicle for non-existent, prestigious and accredited investors only, employing an actively managed, long-short strategy.

There are few things as shameful as the deteriorating state of art and culture in this country. It will come as no surprise to my loyal readers, then, that the subtle, magnificent craft of portraiture appears utterly lost in a thick fog of mediocrity and a pretentious depthlessness. Of course, I can only refer to the latest visual representation of Marc S. Drier (for I cannot bring myself to call it a “picture” or “drawing” much less “art.”)

It is the essence of such representations that their creation at least attempt to rise to the level of their subject. In this case, admittedly, that is a tall order. The almost uniformly elegantly dressed senior partner of Park Avenue law firm Dreier LLP, Dreier presents a rich, complex texture, shot through with conflicts, dark veins of opposing forces, their churning opposition pressing the envelopes of the psyche, yearning for nothing but escape, escape, escape. Contrast the subtle signs of whirlwinds below the impeccable exterior with the rarely seen, but palpable, open, unshorn rouge and we can forgive him his undergraduate transgressions at Yale, for he certainly redeemed himself at Harvard Law thereafter, and this institutional combination, fatal in any weaker, less featured personality, permits Dreier to wear scruff like a bright ascot, an opportunity he occasionally indulges to juxtapose polished Fifth Avenue class with the suggestion that “That whole Yale thing” might not be that far from the surface, even after all these years.

There is a brazen yet subtle boldness in Dreier, the kind of audacity that mounts his brilliant deceptions in full view of the world, in the fishbowl of a glass-walled conference room, taunting the prospect of discovery as office staff who might at any time recognize him, call him the wrong name, plunge him into drowning, downward spiraling agony, walk by and casually glance through ethereal walls of glass that offer scant protection. The pulsing rhythm of office traversal, and throbbing mechanics of discovery. And who can deny the social genius of targeting Canadian Teachers and U. S. Real Estate firms as the foils of a fraud designed to sap the savviest of hedge funds? The very fabric of his machinations: wry social commentary.

Read the rest of the post, and comment, over at DealBreaker.

Poor Marc Dreier

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Marc Dreier Marc S Dreier LLP.jpgQuips a tipster: “Dreier gets $20 million bond — but he didn’t steal enough to pay. This guy is no Madoff.”

Dreier Gets $20 Million Bond [Bloomberg]

Dreier to Remain in Jail [Am Law Daily]

Judge Says No to Bail Request; Dreier to Stay Behind Bars [WSJ Law Blog]

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Marc Dreier

Top Biglaw Stories of 2008: #2 and #1 (Gossip)

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ATL 2008 in review.jpgFinally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: time to announce Above the Law’s top two stories for 2008, on the gossip front. We’ve also been recapping the top stories on the business side of the fence, but stories about the business of law are available from many other outlets. Juicy law firm gossip is harder to come by.

Our two leading gossip stories were broken here at ATL. They were subsequently picked up by mainstream media outlets, but we covered them first.

Read about the two stories, after the jump.

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Associate Life Survey: Lawyer of the Year

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ATL 2008 in review.jpgIn Monday’s ATL / Lateral Link survey, we asked you to cast your vote for the 2008 ATL Lawyer of the Year.

More than three thousand ballots were cast, but there can be only one Lawyer of the Year.

Starting at the bottom, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich may not have hit the very lowest point in Chicago political history, but he did manage to get the lowest tally in our vote, with only 96 supporters.

Harvard Law Avenger Phil Telfeyan was a close second-to-last in your esteem, with a mere 110 votes.

funny-pictures-princess-cat-is-finally-being-recognized.jpgJudge Halverson rounded out the bottom three at 167 votes.

That makes THREE! THREE! THREE candidates who did worse than Count Layoffula! HA! HA! HA! (He received a total of 233 votes.)

Listen dude, you really want the Spitzer? Apparently not. The prosecutor-turned-commentator came up only average in our slate of nominees, with 288 votes.

Nervous T-10 1L may not have found a job this year, but he touched the hearts of 428 voters, landing him in the Final Four.

Marc Dreier — if that’s his real name — swindled up 485 ballots, more votes than disgraced governors Eliot Spitzer and Rod Blagojevich combined. Way to rock the scandal vote, sir. You’re the Second Runner-Up for the 2008 ATL Lawyer of the Year.

That leaves us with the final two. Will last year’s runner-up, President-elect Barack Obama, finally be Number That One? Or will The Anonymous Laid-Off Big Firm Attorney finally get something to soothe his pain? (Elie won’t share his pot.)

Find out who will be crowned the 2008 ATL Lawyer of the Year, after the jump.

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  • 17 Dec 2008 at 6:15 PM
  • Dreier

Dreier LLP, RIP

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This should not come as a great surprise, but let’s go ahead and close the loop. From the WSJ Law Blog:

Dreier LLP Marc Dreier Marc S Dreier Mark Dreier Drier Dryer.jpgNearly two weeks ago, mere hours after Marc Dreier was arrested up in Canada for allegedly impersonating an in-house lawyer at a pension fund, lawyers at the eponymous law firm were heralding its doom. “It’s over,” said one litigation partner at the time.

On Tuesday, the predictions came true; Dreier LLP filed for Chapter 11 protection in bankruptcy court in Manhattan. In its petition, filed by Stephen Shimshak and Brian Hermann at Paul Weiss — where the receiver in the case, Mark Pomerantz, also hangs his hat — Dreier claims to have liabilities tallying between $10 million and $50 million.

The best reading in the petition is the list of creditors. Seems Mr. Dreier hadn’t been keeping up with the firm’s bills. Among those allegedly owed: the landlord of 499 Park Ave. ($908k); West Publishing ($441k); American Express ($323k); PR firm Van Prooyen Greenfield ($274k); ABM Janitorial Services ($89k); and AT&T ($81k).

And you thought your Westlaw bill was big….

A little more, after the jump.

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Court to Marc Dreier: No Bail for You

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Marc Dreier Marc S Dreier LLP.jpgMore bad news for Marc Dreier, the formerly high-flying, Maxim model-dating litigator. From Bloomberg News:

Marc Dreier, the jailed New York law firm founder, must remain in prison while he fights charges that he swindled hedge funds, a federal judge ruled after a prosecutor accused the lawyer of stealing $380 million.

“The evidence does appear to show an enormous risk of flight,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Eaton said at a bail hearing today in Manhattan federal court for Dreier, namesake of the New York law firm Dreier LLP.

Dreier, 58, was arrested on Dec. 7 on U.S. charges that he persuaded two unidentified hedge funds to give him more than $100 million by claiming, falsely, that he was selling at a discount notes issued by New York developer Sheldon Solow. He was arrested after returning to New York from Toronto, where he had been briefly jailed for impersonating a lawyer at the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan.

More links and discussion, after the jump.

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L’Affaire Dreier: A linkwrap, and a tidbit

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Dreier LLP Marc Dreier Marc S Dreier Mark Dreier Drier Dryer.jpgApologies, readers. Although we broke the story of high-profile lawyer Marc Dreier’s arrest in Canada, we’ve fallen behind in covering the latest developments in the Dreier saga (of which there have been many). Fortunately, our friends over at Am Law Daily and the WSJ Law Blog have been following the story quite closely.

We’ve collected some links at the end of this post. The highlights:

  • A summary of recent developments, from the WSJ Law Blog: “Dreier appeared to get hit from all sides: a criminal charge in New York stemming from an alleged $100 million fraud against various hedge funds; an SEC suit alleging Dreier had been marketing and selling fake promissory notes to investors; and a suit by Wachovia Bank against Dreier, Dreier LLP (and a handful of others), alleging that a credit revolver and term loan extended to the firm are in default, as of November 1, upon which the bank is owed some $12.7 million.”

    Marc Dreier Marc S Dreier LLP.jpg

  • The latest news, from Am Law Daily: “[I]t appears very likely that client funds are indeed missing, according to a sworn statement (PDF) that Dreier partner Joel Chernov gave the SEC…. In the statement, Chernov said Dreier spoke to him and fellow Dreier partner Steven Gursky from a Toronto jail after his arrest there for impersonating a lawyer in an attempt to scam an investment group into wiring him more than $30 million. In those conversations, Chernov told the SEC, Dreier admitted improperly using client funds. Dreier also said that he could have refilled the escrow accounts if only he could return to New York. How? Apparently by selling part of an art collection valued at between $30 and $40 million, according to a separate statement (PDF) from John Provenzano, the firm’s Controller.”

    “In his statement, Provenzano claimed Dreier called him twice from the Toronto jail asking him in separate requests to wire $8 million and $10 million from the firm’s escrow accounts into Dreier’s personal accounts. Provenzano (wisely) refused. He also told Dreier the firm owed clients $38 million in connection with its representation of 360Networks. That’s when Dreier mentioned the money he could make selling his art.”

    Maxim men's magazine.jpgFine art — no surprises there. As noted, Marc Dreier has a taste for the finer things in life (like luxury real estate).

    And that’s not all. A source tells us that Dreier is something of a playboy, with a pattern and practice of dating Maxim models (yes, plural). And “not ‘Maxim-quality’ models,” emphasized our source, “but actual Maxim models.”

    If Marc Dreier ends up in prison, at least he’ll have nice memories to keep him warm at night.

    Filings Describe “Devastating Effect” on Dreier LLP [WSJ Law Blog]

    Client Funds Missing, Details on Dreier’s Art Collection, Attorneys Fleeing [Am Law Daily]

    Dreier Faces More Allegations [Wall Street Journal (subscription)]

    The Death of the Dreier Model [Am Law Daily]