The Commercial Fraud Committee had a productive year, producing three webinars, six newsletters, several case law eblasts, and the continuation of the committee-wide conference call program with four calls this year.
The Committee’s educational programs at ABI’s national conferences offered practical information and analysis of recent case law on issues of importance to the commercial fraud members. At the Annual Spring Meeting, the Commercial Fraud Committee paired with the International Committee to present a program entitled “People and Assets on the Move Overseas: What You Need to Know to Hold Everything Still and Seize the Assets.” At the Winter Leadership Conference, the Commercial Fraud Committee paired with the Bankruptcy Litigation Committee to present a program entitled “The Supreme Court Casts a Wide Net for Actual Fraud Under Section 523: Husky and its Potential Impact.” Please feel free to contact our education director, Rick Rein, with any ideas for future programs. Our membership director, Melissa Davis, arranged for a cocktail reception at the Winter Leadership Conference where committee members were able to meet in person.
The Committee published six newsletters this year. The January issue contained three articles, the April issue contained four articles, the May issue contained three articles, the July issue contained two articles, the September issue contained three articles and the November issue contained three articles. Commercial fraud is an extremely active area, and there is always something interesting to write about. Please keep those articles coming and send any ideas or articles for future issues directly to our newsletter editor, Ryan Blackney.
Our ListServ director, Nate Palmer, has been keeping us up to date on the committee activities, dates and deadlines and has provided case law updates on new cases in the commercial fraud arena. Feel free to send Nate any case cites or ideas for his case law updates eblasts so we can share the knowledge committee-wide.
The Committee produced three very well-attended webinars this year. The first webinar, produced by Kathy Phelps, was the final in a series of three webinars showcasing the Committee’s new book, Fraud and Forensics: Piercing Through the Deception in a Commercial Fraud Case, published by ABI. The webinar was entitled “Fraud and Forensics: Lawyers and Forensic Accountants Working Together to Win Cases,” and took place on February 25, 2016. The second webinar on September 8, 2016 was produced by Eric Madden and was entitled “Crime and Punishment: Pursuing an Estate’s Claims with Parallel Criminal or Regulatory Proceedings.” The third webinar, entitled “Administration of a Mega Ponzi Scheme Case: Receiverships v. Bankruptcy,” produced by Kathy Phelps, took place on November 8, 2016, and was co-hosted by the ABI and the National Association of Federal Equity Receivers (NAFER).
The Committee, under the leadership of our special projects coordinator, Kenneth Murena, also continued with its series of committee-wide conference calls designed to both update Committee members on Committee activities and to feature a guest speaker on commercial fraud issues. One call took place on January 14, 2016, and featured Debra Dandeneau, who discussed the recommendation in the ABI’s Commission Report on Chapter 11 Reform on the subject of the burden of proof for appointing Chapter 11 Trustee. Another call took place on May 25, 2016, and featured Sam Schwartz who discussed proposed changes to section 550. A third committee wide call took place on September 19, 2016, and featured James Lodoen who discussed the recent Finn v. Alliance and related decisions on the Ponzi scheme presumption. A fourth call took place on November 29, 2016, with Trisha Redmond and John Hutton as the guest speakers discussing the Uniform Voidable Transaction Act.
We are looking forward to another full and educational year on the Commercial Fraud Committee and invite anyone who is interested to contact us to become more involved. Keep on the lookout for ListServ emails about case law updates (feel free to comment on them), future webinars, and our committee-wide calls. And, of course, we hope to see you all at our educational program on ASM 2017.