Butler Snow will pay $9.5 million to the SEC Receiver in the Lamar Adams case. U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves approved the settlement on February 25.
Lord Snow does not have to admit to any wrongdoing under the terms of the settlement agreement. The agreement bars any parties from suing Lord Snow for any damages
arising out of the Lamar Adams case. The Receiver will dismiss all
claims against the firm within ten days after payment is made in full. A synopsis of the case is posted below.
Receiver Alisson Mills filed her scheduled sixty-day status report on February 26. It is posted below as well.
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.
16 comments:
Of course there was no wrongdoing. People frequently pay $9,500,000 when they didn't do anything wrong.
"Says you can’t pay an unlicensed broker, but doesn’t provide any penalty if you do so."
Well, they do say that justice is blind.
They deserve prison time
Butler-Snow Too big to fail.
How and why is Michael Billings still living high on the hawg?
What's the total clawed back so far?
Butler Snow got between $5 Million Dollars and $10 Million Dollars of PPP scam future generations debt funds that they almost certainly didn't need (like many if not most PPP recipients) while other businesses suffered as well as many individuals including those behind on mortgages and rent that will eventually lose their homes.
It's a good bet the Butler Snow partners are laughing their asses off at the 535 corrupt and/or stupid members of congress that gave them their lotto winnings that might just be enough to pay for the timber scam they were involved in.
Can't make this stuff up.
As the legal clock ticks at a snail's pace, she seems a loooong way from coming up with the $164 million to return to the duped parties.
For the very love of all that is holy quit whining. Quit envying the f*ckheads. It's unseemly.
If you suffered a financial loss then you have something to whine about. If you didn't, you don't. And if you trusted some bozo with your money when every instinct should tell you otherwise, who is to blame? The time to distrust obviously dishonest people is before they fleece you.
As for the legal clock running slowly . . . it's supposed to. That's the idea. I do not want anything those folks have. I don't want to look like them, talk like them, think like them. I'm okay. I got my little piece of heaven on earth and I'm fine with it.
God bless Mississippi, the land of the blind, where the one-eyed man is king. I couldn't have done so well anywhere else.
Could you have?
butler snow sounds just like the piano player in the whorehouse who says he has no idea of what is going on upstairs,
There will be a reduction in caviar deliveries to the penthouse floor until further notice.
Crying shame for this to be all the money that they pay, while blocking others from filing. In front of a jury, the judgement would have prob. been higher and the way still open for the people that were hunt by BS actions.
Poorly played
2:16, talk about mixing apples and donkeys. There is no connection between this story and the PPP loans given by the grace of the federal government.
There are, however, major differences. Butler Snow was eligible for the PPP loans, just like any other business enterprise that had employees during the early COVID days. There were guidelines established and for businesses that met them, an entitlement.
Just because you don't like Butler Snow, or are jealous of them, or have been screwed by them somehow/somewhere, doesn't matter. They were entitled to apply for and receive the PPP loans just as the Roman Catholilc Church (who has even more money than Butler Snow) were entitled to receive them.
You want to bitch abouot BS taking advantage of a program, blame congress not them. But while you are at it, why don't you bitch about many delta farmers who have for decades taken advantage of many farm loan programs way in excess of this one shot done by your least favorite law firm. They have screwed many more generations than the PPP ever thought of.
4:09 PM, THERE IT IS! Those words “entitlement” and “entitled.” Thank you so much for letting us know where “you” stand on “who is entitled” and “who is not,” in this great country, the US of A!
Since you’re an “entitlement advocate” for the rich, with no problem at all seeing people suffering from unemployment, being behind on rent, being forced to close their businesses, facing foreclosure, etc. due to the COVID-19 Wuhan pandemic,
while highly profitable businesses owners that suffered no loss at all get Millions of Dollars of government welfare that they did not need
(everybody calls them PPP “loans” to trick the ill-informed sheep but the so-called “loans” were “forgiven” so…it is WELFARE; and anyone that tells you otherwise is either ignorant, or a liar)…
please at least tell us you are not one of the so-called “Conservatives” claiming to be against government waste…or one of the so-called “Socialists” wailing and gnashing their teeth against anybody that’s managed to become successful; while at the same time being for giving government welfare to millionaires and billionaires!
Not sure what we should call this new political movement that’s A-OK with Millions of Dollars of government welfare for rich people while those that are actually suffering due to the COVID-19 Wuhan pandemic get thrown a small bone, if that. Maybe you can describe yourself so we can come up with the new party name???
P. S.’s
Didn’t say the Timber scam and the PPP scam were connected…and no personal problem or jealousy with Butler Snow. It is potentially ironic though that the PPP government welfare scam for the rich may have actually forced future generations to pay the entire Butler Snow 9.5 Million Dollar settlement, i.e. one scam on tax payers pays the fine for another scam on so-called “investors.”
Why are you picking on the Roman Catholics? Other churches got in on the PPP government welfare for rich people that didn’t need it scam as well, didn’t they? Private schools got Millions of Dollars of PPP government welfare that that didn’t need while not not even discounting, much less waiving tuitions; didn’t they? Etc., etc., etc. as the list is long so why pick on Catholics?
Re: your comment “blame congress,” see the “535 corrupt and/or stupid members of congress” in the original post. You might want to read a little slower next time; don’t be so high strung.
What about searight and alexander? they are the ones that recruited my family.
4:09 - you hit the nail on the head with your lat paragraph. I know farmers that have take millions in what the call "subsidies" over the years. All anyone has to do is go on line and look. It will tell you and how much they've gotten over the years. Its staggering who all claims it and how much they get.
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