Corruption This Law Firm Has Been Involved In - Hunton And Williams
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Hot Off The Presses! - NYTIMES- Saturday, May 17, 2008 -The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Manhattan District Attorney's office are conducting inquiries into an investment scheme run by a New York lawyer that may have bilked dozens of lawyers, businessmen and others of up to $100 million.
The reputed Ponzi-type scheme offered participants returns of 60 percent on their
investments in a business that was to purchase premium Scotch whiskies and other
quality liquors for resale in Asia. But the deal went bust last summer, three years
after it started, when investors said they discovered that early returns did not
reflect business profits but had been paid out of a growing pool of investments.
One striking element of the investment plan is that some of those who said they lost money were lawyers, who are typically paid to sniff out a bad deal. In addition, the plan was apparently operated in large part out of the New York offices of a major national law firm, giving it the patina of respectability, recently filed lawsuits have contended.
The lawyer at the heart of the reputed scheme was Scott J. McKay Wolas, who until last summer was a partner and leading litigator in the New York City office ofHunton & Williams, a large law firm based in Richmond. He has family ties to the
liquor business.
Scott Wolas also supposedly used his office at Hunton & Williams to entertain those who invested in the scheme, lawsuits have contended. "His association with Hunton & Williams gave an air of legitimacy to the project," said Sigmund. S. Wissner-Gross, who filed a lawsuit last month against, among others, the Wolases and Hunton & Williams ... more of the story here
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