Ulmer & Berne LLP attorneys Frances Floriano Goins and Thomas L. Anastos recently obtained a jury verdict absolving a national bank client of liability for allegedly aiding and abetting a large-scale, Ponzi-type investment scheme.  Plaintiff had alleged that the bank assisted in the scheme by opening bank accounts for the perpetrators of the scheme, and by failing to notify investors whose checks had been deposited in accounts at the bank when the bank discovered the accounts had been opened by an individual who had previously been convicted of check kiting and bank fraud.  Investors were alleged to have lost approximately $60 million in the scheme. 

In the same case, Ulmer & Berne had previously defeated a motion to certify a class of more than 300 putative plaintiff-investors.  The case was pending for over three years, during which time Ulmer & Berne also obtained dismissal of seven defendant banks and financial institutions on related UCC and fraud claims arising from the defendants’ handling of customer checks and the bank accounts of the alleged Ponzi scheme perpetrators.  The individual who allegedly instigated the investment scheme plead guilty to numerous counts of mail fraud on unrelated investments, and is currently serving out a sentence in federal prison. 

The jury trial was conducted in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, Ohio.  The jury deliberated for only a short time before rendering a defense verdict on May 14, 2009.