Miami’s Greenberg Traurig law firm apologizes, admits mistakes in Rothstein-related investment trial - Miami Herald

The head of Miami's powerful Greenberg Traurig law firm, embarrassed over its failure to turn over key financial records to investors who sued one of the firm's clients, said he was sorry to a federal judge Friday.

"I want to apologize. Obviously, mistakes were made," Cesar Alvarez, executive director of the 1,800-lawyer Greenberg Traurig firm, told U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke near the end of a two-day contempt hearing. "I am very saddened for the firm and for the lawyers."

But Alvarez told the judge "there was no conspiracy" and "nothing intentionally done" to withhold documents from Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein's fleeced investors in their recent trial against Greenberg's client, Toronto-Dominion Bank, which stands accused of hiding and doctoring records for the trial.

The investors, known as the Coquina Group, won a $ 67 million judgment in January against the behemoth bank, which admitted "mistakes" were made but did not issue any apology to the judge. TD Bank fired Greenberg in April and hired another prominent law firm, McGuireWoods. Rothstein was a TD Bank customer while he carried out his massive investment scam.

Friday's hearing featured the unusual public admission and apology from Alvarez and the lawyer who handled the case for his firm, Donna Evans. Two other prominent Greenberg lawyers, Mark Schnapp and Holly Skolnick, took the stand to testify about how they learned the law firm had misrepresented the truth during the contentious litigation.

Cooke, who presided over the trial, will likely decide this summer whether TD Bank and Greenberg lawyers violated so-called discovery rules — the exchange of evidence between the two sides — and whether they should be sanctioned, fined or held in contempt of court. A related dispute, regarding TD Bank's alleged failure to turn over voluminous records showing Rothstein had been flagged as a potential money launderer, must also be addressed.

Coquina's attorney David Mandel — assisted by one of the nation's top appellate lawyers, Miguel Estrada — has asked the judge to strike every pleading and objection made by Greenberg's lawyers at trial to stop TD Bank's appeal of the $ 67 million verdict.

Mandel accused TD Bank and Greenberg of withholding incriminating financial documents on the bank's anti-money laundering policy. He also alleged they produced a "doctored'' bank profile of Rothstein, an attorney who ran a 70-lawyer firm, that made him look like a "low-risk" instead of a "high-risk" customer who did not require scrutiny. TD Bank's new lawyers said mislabeling on the paperwork, known as a "due-diligence'' form, was a "copying error."

"We have repeated misconduct again, and again, and again," Mandel told the judge.

The landmark Coquina case marked the nation's first civil jury verdict against a bank for "aiding and abetting fraud," by assisting Rothstein as he laundered millions of dollars in law firm's trust accounts kept at TD Bank. The disbarred Fort Lauderdale lawyer is serving a 50-year sentence for orchestrating a $ 1.2 billion investment scam involving the sale of fabricated legal settlements.

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