NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Attorneys Daniel R. Solin and Kevin M. Kinne have recovered millions of dollars for South American investors who lost money they entrusted to United States and European financial institutions. Earlier this month they did it again – reaching a settlement with EFG Capital International Corp. and EFG Bank that will pay approximately $7.8 million to 279 investors in South and Central America.
Solin and Kinne teamed together with their co-counsel Lawrence A. Kellogg and Jason Kellogg to secure the settlement. Judge Victor Marrero of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York approved the settlement on June 1, 2012.
The aggrieved investors lost money in the Madoff Ponzi scheme. Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for his role in the scheme. A large part of the $50 billion invested in Madoff’s hedge fund originated in so-called feeder funds. One of the principal feeder funds was the Fairfield Sentry Limited Fund. EFG Capital based in Miami, Florida, recommended Fairfield Sentry Limited Fund to its customers.
“We are very happy for our clients. They were innocent victims of fraud and deserve this significant recovery,” said Solin, who is an internationally known advocate for investors and the author of the New York Times bestselling Smartest series of investment books. “Our clients are the first Fairfield Sentry investors who lost money in the Madoff scandal to receive compensation through litigation in the United States.”
The lead plaintiffs in the case were from Uruguay and Argentina. According to the complaint, Fairfield Sentry was EFG Capital’s largest hedge fund offering. The complaint alleged EFG Capital and EFG Bank failed to conduct adequate due diligence on Fairfield Sentry and Madoff, and failed to alert its clients to signs that should have placed them on notice that Madoff was running a fraudulent scheme. EFG Capital denied all the allegations in the complaint and the settlement agreement provides that it may not be construed as an admission of liability.
After winning or settling multi-million dollar cases against many large multi-national corporations such as Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, and Prudential Securities/Wells Fargo, Kinne sees a pattern. “When Latin American investors realize that there is way to pursue claims against U.S. and international companies that have engaged in wrongdoing, they can get their money back. Investors have the right to bring claims when these companies violate their basic duties to their customers,” said Kinne, who is a partner at Massachusetts-based law firm of Cohen Kinne Valicenti & Cook LLP (www.cohenkinne.com).