Three judges overseeing
the legal proceedings related to disgraced lawyer Marc S. Dreier have
set a May 8 deadline for the Securities and Exchange Commission and
U.S. Attorney's Office to reveal information regarding a global
settlement that would resolve outstanding bankruptcy and forfeiture
issues.
Two judges from the U.S. District Court for the Southern
District of New York, Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum and Jed S. Rakoff, and
bankruptcy judge, Stuart M. Bernstein, of the same district, issued a
joint order on Monday demanding that the agencies of the federal
government that are prosecuting Dreier's cases pick up the pace
regarding outstanding bankruptcy and forfeiture issues.
Just what
are those issues? Prosecutors on Dreier's civil and criminal cases have
demanded that he hand over more than $700 million -- the amount of
proceeds he received for his alleged fraudulent activity. In addition,
the government wants to seize several luxury yachts and cars, bank
accounts and real estate properties that can be linked to Dreier's
fraud offenses, court documents filed with the U.S. District Court in
Manhattan indicated.
Uncertainty remains, however, over whether
Chapter 11 trustee, Sheila Gowan, overseeing the bankruptcy of Dreier's
ill-fated law firm, Dreier LLP, is empowered to conduct an auction of
the very assets that the feds are trying to recapture from Dreier. It's
this dilemma that the global resolution between the agencies and the
trustee would help resolve.
Gowan has already overseen the auction
of Dreier LLP's office and designer furniture for the benefit of
creditors on March 26. Now she will auction off three of Marc Dreier's
real estate properties, including a luxury Manhattan condominium, in
June through auctioneer David R. Maltz & Co.
It was
Gowan, who was appointed trustee of the law firm's bankruptcy on Dec.
30, that put Dreier himself into Chapter 7 involuntarily on Jan.
26. - Carolyn Okomo
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