MIAMI (Legal Newsline) – A group of investors are seeking damages from a Texas-based financial institution over their alleged investment losses.
Marsha Katz, David Bremson, Harry Breyer and Jane Breyer, individually and as attorney in fact for Lorraine Schockett, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated filed a complaint on Dec. 22, 2017, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against Comerica Bank alleging aiding and abetting fraud and breach of fiduciary duty.
According to the complaint, the plaintiffs allege that they purchased investments from the Woodbridge group of companies and all bank accounts were opened and maintained by the defendant. The suit states Robert Shapiro owned the Woodbridge group of companies.
The plaintiffs claim that "lacking the revenue to pay returns owed to plaintiffs and other investors, Shapiro paid the returns using new investor money, raising more than $1.22 billion before the Ponzi scheme collapsed. In December 2017, most of the Woodbridge companies declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The investors now confront enormous losses," the suit states.
The plaintiffs allege Comeria had notice of the alleged fraud "from a series of red flags associated with the accounts," and that the defendant "continued to enable Shapiro's fraud."
The plaintiffs hold Comerica Bank responsible because the defendant allegedly failed to identify, monitor, or exercise due diligence related to the regulatory and compliance red flags, failed to implement and adhere to compliance and monitoring protocols concerning the use of investors' investment funds and failed to prevent, report, or otherwise take corrective action in response to Shapiro’s misappropriation and misuse of investor funds.
The plaintiffs request a trial by jury and seek award of damages, including prejudgment interest, attorneys' fees, costs of litigation, and grant such other relief as the court may deem just and proper. They are represented by Jeffrey R. Sonn of Sonn Law Group PA in Aventura, Florida and Scott L. Silver of Silver Law Group in Coral Springs, Florida.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida case number 0:17-cv-62551-WPD