Collection of all posts about Lamar Adams case.
SEC Receiver Allyson Mills announced Lord Snow will settle for $9.5 million in the Lamar Adams case. She stated in her status report:
I am pleased to announce that after two years of litigation, I have reached a proposed settlement with Butler Snow for $9,500,000.
• I believe the proposed settlement with Butler Snow is in the Receivership Estate’s best interests because it will make a meaningful distribution possible; will dispose of Butler Snow’s appeal, which has impeded progress in other cases; and might lead to settlements with other parties. Nevertheless, investors and interested parties will have an opportunity to object to the settlement if they choose. They can expect more information on the approval process from me soon.
The disclosure is in the status report she is required to submit to the Court every sixty days. Ms. Mills announced more progress in recovering funds for the victims.
On November 10, 2020, Wayne Kelly tendered to the Receivership Estate an additional $304,971.86 in proceeds from a federal tax refund, following the restatement of his 2018 taxes required by his settlement agreement with the Receivership Estate.
On December 11, 2020, the Court approved the sale of the Receivership Estate’s 25% interest in MASH Farms, LLC, resulting in an additional $258,500.
Today the Receivership Estate has $7,155,312.07 in the bank, not counting the $4,668,530.48 in proceeds from the sale of Oxford Springs’s property. Together that’s $11,823,842.55 before any settlement or judgment in any of the Receivership Estate’s big lawsuits.
Synopsis of Case
The SEC is trying to claw back illegal profits earned by Lamar Adams and promoters of a $164 million Ponzi scheme based on phony timber investments. Receiver Alysson Mills represents the SEC in recovering assets for later distribution to the victims. Her efforts include suing promoters who received commissions as well as the Butler Snow and Baker Donelson law firms. Adams is incarcerated in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.
Receiver Alysson Mills sued Butler Snow, Butler Snow Business Advisory
Division President Matt Thornton, and Baker Donelson in U.S. District
Court on December 19, 2018 to recover commissions paid to them in the
Lamar Adams timber fraud case. The complaint charges employees at both
law firms worked with Lamar Adams to sell phony timber investments to
firm clients.
The complaint states Adams and Pinnacle Trust formed the Madison Timber
Fund, LLC. It sought to raise $10 million through the sale of 100
shares at a share price of $100,000. Butler Snow lawyers worked with
Adams on the PPM. However, the PPM did not attract any investors.
Butler Snow created an Advisory Services division that would provide
“non-legal business advice” in 2011. Mike Billings joined Lord Snow in
2012 as a “strategic advisor.” Ms. Mills said Billings gave strategic
advice to Madison Timber as the company sought to raise $30-$50
million. Thornton allegedly "alerted" senior partners Don and Barry
Cannada about the new business. Adams paid BSAS $3,500 per month for 17
months. Thornton and Billings looked for clients to purchase timber
shares. They created a list of over thirty local individuals and
families as prospects. Many people on the list purchased the phony
timber shares.
The complaint stated Lord Snow lawyers created a PPM in February 2013
that sought to raise $100 million by selling $1,000 shares at a price
of $100,000 per share. Lord Snow moved up from local yokels and began
to pitch the shares to larger, institutional investors. Unfortunately
(sarcasm) for Team Thornton, the PPM fell flat but there was a
timber lining in the cloud of failure as many of the prospects
invested in “standing tracts” of timber land. Adams delivered
commission checks for each sale to Lord Snow.
The Receiver accused Butler Snow, Billings, and Thornton, of acting as
"unlicensed brokers, in violation of state and federal law." No one
ever registered with the SEC as the promissory notes were sold and
commission checks were delivered. Ms. Mills aimed her complaint
squarely at Barry Cannada:
Butler Snow knew or should have known what it was doing was unlawful. Among the notes in Butler Snow’s Madison Timber files is this comment from Don Cannada in 2009: “Very broad definition of what a broker is . . . Includes one who for a commission procures a purchaser or prospect etc. See 73-35-31 for penalties. Says you can’t pay an unlicensed broker, but doesn’t provide any penalty if you do so.”
Billings was making so much money off of the timber scheme that he left
Lord Snow in December 2013 and began working directly for Lamar Adams.
Adams stopped paying the $3,500 monthly retainer fee to Lord Snow.
However, Adams engaged Lord Snow to assist him in other projects such
as the Oxford Springs development in North Mississippi. The
complaint makes it clear that Adams enjoyed the full range of Lord
Snow’s diverse offerings: legal services, business advice, and
lobbying. Butler Snow, in true Shylock fashion, continued to bill
Adams for services rendered after he was caught. Lord Snow finally
terminated the relationship on May 11 – two days after he pleaded
guilty and 11 days after he was indicted.
Billings settled for $800,000.
40 comments:
They probably got more than that in ppp money.
Butler Snow received between $5-10 million of OUR MONEY under the socialist PPP program. It was printed on that endless printing press operated by the Fed.
Can you say INFLATION?
Ya can't buy class
OK. So Butler Snow got PPP money. So did every other damn big law firm - or for that matter, any big firm. Or small firm. It has absolutely nothing to do with the crap that Lamar Adams did, with the obvious aid of Butler Snow.
Keep on harping that you don't like the firm. Ignore that for decades there has always been a large law firm in the state that was politically powerful. It has moved from firm to firm over the years (forget those years of the venerable William Winter, John (Hampton) Stennis firm that controlled everything? Only one of many examples.
The PPP money went to anybody that kept employees working - law firm or not, big powerful political firm or not. All you are showing is your ignorance in trying to bitch.
For my money, I'm glad to see that the receiver is putting the legal screws to what was a scam, and the folks at BS should have been able to see through it with only one eye open. Which they did, it appears, but thought "why not"?
@1:08 - Corporate socialism isn’t called socialism in the US, it’s called trickle down economics or being a Republican.
It’s so rare that we get to see numbers when cases settle.
Lots of defendants still on deck for 2021. It’ll be fun to watch.
What’s Ms. Mills’ cut now that she set out on her own?
Who even sues butler snow and recovers in Mississippi?
I wonder how often if ever butler snow has had to see a settlement or judgment against it published.
Been following since first post. Always interesting.
We need to reinstate hard labor to sentencing mandates.
Busted. i bet lord snow put some different
Investment advisor protocol booklets in its employees’ stockings this year.
Go receiver!
so she's collected less than 10% of funds invested in madison timber's fraud, meanwhile the receiver in bernie madoff's case has collected 80% of the funds.
1:50 pm
You are correct.
But what you fail to realize is this forum is not about communication as much as it’s about trolling.
Troll = clicks = $$$$ for troll farm owner.
If we were smart we make the troll farm pay us to appear snd post.
Butler Snow has to repay the ppp loan too people....so stfu about it.
The Death Star will make that up with only a portion of bond lawyer fees generated out of the next session's state bond issuance.
The figures don't compute. The amount ponied up by Butler/Snow exceeds the total clawed back to date. It's time to strap McHenry's ass to the pillory - another drop in the bucket, as it were.
Well, 3:40, I guess you are some kind of genius for pointing out the obvious. Why don't you go over to the Facebook pages of WLBT, WAPT, WJTV, and the Clarion-Ledger and give them grief (under your name on Facebook instead of anonymous here) because guess what? They all post stories for ratings and yes, clicks. Why do you think so many dog stories are on WAPT's site? Why do you think the Clarion-Ledger posts so many stories about race? But you won't do so because you are a bigot. You just want corporate, spoon-fed media and are bigoted against any alternative media. Well, Captain Obvious, everyone in this business pays attention to clicks and ratings. Everyone.
You know damned well if BS settled for this pittance, it raked in 15 times this amount. 15, 15, do I hear 20?
guess what the mississippi state bar association is going to do to the lawyers involved in this...........NOTHING!
2:01 Oh, that's rich! "Projection" much?
For all the Butler Snow apologist/ employees on here. Did you use the Katrina Go Zone money to build new building?
The initial posts (minus the narration from the troll farm owner) are usually very informative
The culling and winnowing of the comments are then done at the whim of the Troll farmer.
That’s what makes this site so insidious.
It portends to be a menagerie of naturally occurring reactions / remarks to the topic when in reality it is a carefully crafted narrative foisted on an unsuspecting audience.
And when you need some cash money....you just stink it up with divisive rhetoric and rank lies.
230 gets modified like most want and these type shit holes go by the way side.....won’t be too soon.
....won’t be too soon.
AND you will never get off your pathetic sorry ass and start your own competing business. You'll never demonstrate any ability to do anything but occupy your position as a piss ant throwing small rocks from the fringes. They can change 230 but you'll remain a total loser.
KF - how does this settlement affect the ongoing litigation against Bancplus and their participation in this timber mess?
Has anyone learned what percent of the scammed money has been recovered by Mills and Company?
Butler Snow does not own that building. Never has.
but no guilt or responsibility?
So Michael Billings made millions and paid back 890k. Sweet deal. Why?
attn 5:52 All I was able to find as the amount scammed was over $100,000,000.00. I did hear of at least one person approaching the infamous Lamar about negotiating selling him 300 acres of timber. Lamar’s response was that was to small for Lamar to deal with.
Kelly paid $305,000.00 as a tax refund he had paid on his ill gotten gains. How much did Michael Billings receive back from the IRS when he filed an amended return, or more importantly, where did that money go and how much is it?
Butler Snow is paying for fooling a bunch of pretty savvy people (or people that thought they were pretty savvy) into buying a bunch of stuff Lamar didn’t have rights to. Lamar is in jail and his family home was sold for same reason. Bancplus and Baker boys will pay for same reason. Any money that is not recovered will be responsibility of “savvy” investors who speculated through baker, butler, bancplus and Lamar.
All that smoke that I saw last year coming from the executive level balcony of the Snow Job building must have paid off.
Maybe now she can investigate Pinnacle “Trust”...
3:57 12/31/20 You are absolutely correct. How McHenry weaseled out of that scrape is beyond me. He is a shyster from way back and will not stop. If anyone has any dealings with him, beware!!
Smart move by Butler Snow. Put it behind you. Too much distraction.
My two cents: This seems like a very fair (to both the victims and Butler Snow), hard fought, settlement. I continue to be very impressed with Allyson Mills. This was not easy.
I do think that Baker Donelson should not be permitted to settle for less than $50MM. They have a lot more liability than BS for being the business advisory consultants to a Ponzi scheme. Baker, allegedly, had partners hawking the scheme from their Jackson office. That is much more active participation and was significantly more helpful to the overall Ponzi scheme enterprise than Butler Snow's role.
What is the deal with Pinnacle Trust?
Law firms are not liable for partners’ conduct outside the practice of law.
Macy Hanson: I never trust no woman who smokes cigars, wears short skirts and has a bobble-head in her rear car window. My uncle said them are clear signals.
For the most part, the investors were paid a return on the money they put in. The only losses were near the end. No where near $100 million dollars. Pay back the ones that lost and delete the attorney fee quickbooks account. The damn attorneys are worse than Lamar ever was. Crooked as hell and no remorse.
BS paid settlement with ppe money.
PPP
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