PatrickPretty.com

Day: October 15, 2014

  • Lawyers Assemble To Discuss TelexFree Case; Session Sponsored By Boston Bar Association And Led By Jonathan M. Horne And Timothy J. Durken Of Jager Smith PC

    newtelexfreelogoEDITOR’S NOTE: It is hard to contemplate the rich history of the United States without at once contemplating the rich history of the Boston Bar Association. They shall forever be intertwined . . .

    One could imagine that, 241 years ago, a contemplative session of the Boston Bar Association (BBA) might have been advertised with paper handbills and titled, “The Law as It Pertains to Taxation without Representation and the Destruction of Certain Aromatic Tea in Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773.”

    Although yesterday’s noontime session at the BBA appears to have eschewed handbills in favor of Twitter and such, it nevertheless addressed the past and the future. Its simple title: “TelexFree[:] How We Got Here and Where We Are Going.”

    Jonathan M. Horne and Timothy J. Durken of Jager Smith PC were instrumental in putting it together. A PDF of what was covered at the session is available today.

    Other information on the session is available at the website of the BBA.

    The venerable Boston Bar traces its roots to the 18th century. In the 1760s, a local young fellow by the name of John Adams was speaking on important things (such as justice) in and around the coffeehouses and taverns on Beacon Hill. He later helped organize the greatest beacon of freedom the world had ever known: the United States of America. In ways large and small, Massachusetts continues to be a preeminent source of light from this beacon.

    Later yet, Adams would become the second President of the United States, succeeding George Washington.

    President Adams, the father of John Quincy Adams, America’s sixth President, knew towns TelexFree members later would know. (Among them are Quincy and Worcester.)

    Read the bio of President John Adams at WhiteHouse.gov.

  • RECEIVER: Zeek Rewards Was ‘Pig’ To Which MLM Lawyers Attemped To Apply ‘Lipstick’ — While One Of The Lawyers Participated On Massive Ponzi Scheme’s ‘Leadership Calls’

    EDITOR’S NOTE: Kevin Grimes, MLM Compliance VT LLC and the Grimes & Reese law firm have argued that the claims against them should be dismissed. Zeek’s receiver argues otherwise, saying a “bogus ‘compliance course’” advanced by Grimes helped dupe the Zeek masses. Zeek affected hundreds of thousands of people, the SEC has said.

    Legal malpractice and other claims against MLM attorney Kevin Grimes, his entity MLM Compliance VT LLC and the Grimes & Reese law firm should stand, the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid-scheme case said in court filings yesterday.

    One of the reasons, receiver Kenneth D. Bell argued in a motion to Senior U.S. District Judge Graham C. Mullen, is that the defendants “in effect attempted to put lipstick on the ZeekRewards pig.”

    Another reason is that Grimes participated in at least three affiliate “leadership calls” with Zeek insiders and “actively assisted the Insiders in promoting and legitimizing the scheme,” Bell said.

    “Grimes allowed his name and his firm’s name to be used to promote the scheme,” Bell said.

    Mullen should reject bids by the defendants to have the claims dismissed, Bell argued.

    Read the receiver’s argument, courtesy of the ASD Updates Blog.

    Read the Grimes’ brief in support of his motion to dismiss. Read the Grimes & Reese brief in support of its motions to dismiss.

    The SEC has described Zeek as a massive securities fraud that gathered hundreds of millions of dollars in a combined Ponzi- and pyramid scheme.