One more tree fell in the the Lamar Adams Ponzi scheme wreckage. A victim sued Pinnacle Trust Monday in Madison County Chancery Court but withdrew the lawsuit without prejudice Wednesday. Pinnacle Trust was the trustee of her trust. She accused Pinnacle of investing her money in the timber scam several years after it advised its clients not to invest in the same scam.
Mr. Adams pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of wire
fraud. The Justice Department said in that case Adams defrauded 250
investors of more than $100 million in a massive but phony timber investment scheme. Victims received phony property deeds in exchange for their investments.
Dorothy Lehan and Pinnacle Trust agreed to establish the Dorothy Lehan Second Trust in 2005. Pinnacle is trustee and thus has a fiduciary duty to administer the trust. Jeanne and Pamela Lehan are the trust's beneficiaries. Dorothy died and Pinnacle divided the shares between Jeanne and Pamela per Dorothy's instructions and held the assets in trust for the pair.
Jeanne stated that she created an LLC, Foxglove, at the "direction" of Pinnacle Trust. The LLC was formed in 2010. The Secretary of State's website states Pinnacle Trust became the registered agent for the LLC in 2013. The stated purpose of the LLC is "timber tract operations."
The plaintiff places the blame for investing in the bogus timber scheme at the feet of Pinnacle Trust:
17. At all times relevant hereto, Foxglove, by and/or at the direction of Pinnacle Trust, or based upon advice from Pinnacle Trust, was engaged in the business of making loans to Madison Timber Co., Inc., Madison Timber Properties, LLC and Lamar Adams (collectively referred to as "Madison Timber") . The purported purpose for these loans was to enable Madison Timber to purchase, harvest and sell timber on properties located in the State of Mississippi and elsewhere.These loans were, for all practical purposes, unsecured loans as the only purported collateral given to secure the loans were unrecorded Timber Deeds and Cutting Agreements.
18. In making these loans for and on behalf of Foxglove, and as Trustee of the Jeanne Trust and the Pamela Trust, Pinnacle Trust did not perform adequate due diligence or investigation as to the credit worthiness of Madison Timber or the value of any purported collateral offered by Madison Timber as security for such loans. By way of example, Pinnacle Trust did not obtain from a licensed and adequately insured attorney any certificates of title or title opinions on the properties which were the subject of any Timber Deeds purportedly conveyed to Madison Timber or conveyed by Madison Timber. In addition, Pinnacle Trust did not require Madison Timber to provide a certificate of title or title opinion as mentioned above from a licensed and adequately insured attorney.
JJ readers will remember this statement issued by Pinnacle Trust when the Lamar Adams story first broke:
It appears Ms. Lehan remembered this statement as well:
21. Unbeknownst to Jeanne and Pamela, beginning in or around January of 201l, Pinnacle Trust determined that loans to Madison Timber did not qualify as a suitable investment for its clients and Pinnacle Trust advised most of its clients, but not Jeanne and Pamela, not to make loans to Madison Timber or otherwise invest in Madison Timber. Pinnacle Trust, which indisputably knew that both the Jeanne Trust and the Pamela Trust were invested in Foxglove and Foxglove's only asset and source of income was loans to Madison Timber, did not disclose to Jeanne and Pamela the information they had concerning Madison Timber or that Pinnacle Trust had advised most of its clients not to loan money to Madison Timber or otherwise invest in Madison Timber.Pinnacle allegedly did not notify Jeanne about the bogus nature of the scheme until April 28, 2018. Pinnacle sent her a statement on May 1 that stated Lamar Adams was indicted for the fraud.
22. As it turns out, Madison Timber was nothing more than a Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Lamar Adams and others. The Madison Timber Ponzi scheme is the largest Ponzi scheme perpetrated to date in the State of Mississippi.
The complaint charges Pinnacle Trust with breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of loyalty, and gross negligence. Jeanne asks the court to award her all money lost in the timber fraud, Pinnacle's fees, and punitive damages.
Attorneys Todd Burwell and John Davidson represented the plaintiff. The case was assigned to Chancellor Cynthia Brewer.
The complaint was filed on June 25. Jeanne submitted a notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice to the court on June 27.
23 comments:
Pinnacle Trust shall henceforth be renamed as "Pinnacle" as the Trust has been thrown in the trash.
Stacey Wall has one thing to sell.....his reputation for truth and honesty.
That reputation was just splatted up against a tree.
The damages the plaintiff could have asserted include a sum of money to include whatever Mike Mills' daughter as trustee for the victims decides to "claw back."
John Davidson is a lot of things...but stupid ain't one. He just maximized the settlement value and created a whole new class of plaintiffs.
Ruh, roh. More popcorn please.
I'm guessing they did a nonsuit because of the blatant typos in paragraph 24.
The lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice which means that it can be refiled thus probably no settlement. As to John Davidson and Todd Burwell poor lawyering - - look at the complaint its full of strike outs and typos. I would bet that's why it was dismissed, they didn't want to look like idiots.
Probably got dismissed because Burwell figured out he has a conflict since one of his current clients will most likely be one of the John Does.
I choose my financial advisers the way I choose my Congressional candidates: Did they play basketball for Mississippi State in the 1990s?
That's why I call Erick Dampier for investment advice, not crooks like Pinnacle.
That's also why I won't be voting in November.
damn, someone filed the redlined version. cringeworthy. it'll be refiled.
To the jerk at 11:25, you choose your Congressional candidates the old fashioned way: support the latest weakass candidate that Governor / Deputy Ennis and the Duke boys ( Quinton and his jack-ass partner Josh) tell you to support. The election is over by the way. Now, Guest can follow in his predecessor’s footsteps and lead an important committee in the House like the House Administration Committee. Whatever happened to electing real leaders like Sonny Montgomery?
The real issue to discuss on this blog is with Guest leaving the DA’s office, who will collect those TMobile bills from 2004? Huge miss by the “walking dead” voters of Rankin County by electing a bill collector to a seat that used to hold incredible influence.
@2:07... that seat has been held for the last ten years by a bill collector. I guess Guest can just hand it back of to Greggggggg.
I’m gonna be ok y’all! I just purchased some gold and silver from that guy on TV, William Devane and Rosalyn Capital.... well, he SAID I could access it anytime!
So, is Community Bank still working with them for Wealth Management? Or have they bailed yet?
The bank bailed a long time ago after finding Pinnacle was too clean for them to do business with.
How many other clients did they put into this? What banks outsource wealth management to Pinnacle?
zz-zzzzzz! and more zzzzzzzz!this is the pinnacle of boring. put their ass in jail and move on with more important issues.
They said she named the LLC “Foxglove”. Should have been “Operation Foxglove” and it would have sounded more “espionagish like”.....
Community Bank outsources wealth management to Pinnacle.
Community Bank might need to reconsider.
Winning.
Winning.
so.
much.
winning.
I'm a bit new to this - why would she file and dismiss? Does that mean there was a settlement or what?
Anyone know why Randy was fired from Pinnacle? Also, where is Jeremy?
Jeremy was fired last year and formed Element after the fact.
Don't know what happened to Randy. Haven't seen him emerge anywhere.
Randy wasn't fired, he left. Jeremy formed Element Wealth after he was let go.
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