Nazi-looted art, bankruptcy estate assets, marital assets and almost anything else can conceivably be secretly transferred by common methods.  Just a few of the common methods include the use of intermediaries (i.e. nominees), forgeries, portable valuable commodities and multiple jurisdictions to fraudulently transfer or hide assets.

By studying these kinds of methods, the continuing legal education program “Following The Money Trails From Marital Assets To Nazi-Looted Art“, reveals how individuals and corporations may conceal assets from governmental authorities, creditors, bankruptcy trustees and others.  This three hour program about money trails and tracking assets will be presented on Long Island at the Suffolk County Bar Association on May 24, 2011 and then at the New York County Lawyers’ Association in NYC, June 21, 2011.  It discusses some of the ways one might detect and possibly recover assets concealed in cases involving:

  1. debtors in bankruptcy;
  2. divorcing spouses;
  3. tax cheats;
  4. Ponzi schemers;
  5. post-judgment debtors;
  6. suspected kleptocrats;
  7. Nazi-looted art; etc.

As more fully set forth below, the program faculty are: an attorney who has located tens of millions of dollars hidden in offshore tax havens; a litigator who handled the first Nazi-era art case ever to be tried in federal court; a highly regarded bankruptcy law practitioner with over 28 years experience; and a forensic scientist / former police detective who investigated several high profile matters including the forgery and homicide case of New York socialite Irene Silverman.

FACULTY & OTHER INFORMATION

FRED L. ABRAMS, ESQ.

As the program chair of “Following The Money Trails From Marital Assets To Nazi-Looted Art”, Fred L. Abrams explains how assets can be secretly transferred through money laundering and other ways.  He highlights typical methods used to locate / interdict assets across the globe and describes what can happen if one illegally snoops as part of an “asset search” to uncover an asset concealment scheme.

Practicing in the asset recovery areas of financial intelligence, financial fraud investigations and forced collection proceedings, Mr. Abrams has been cited by Forbes MagazineThe New York Times, FoxBusiness News, MoneyLaundering.com, etc.  He has located tens of millions of dollars hidden in offshore tax havens and filed legal proceedings in Zurich, Geneva, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam and Puerto Rico to seek discovery from foreign bank witnesses.  A member of the New York bar since 1990, Mr. Abrams handled a wide variety of legal matters in which assets were hidden, such as RICO, money laundering, identity theft and tax fraud.

As a guest of the New York County Lawyers’ Association, the Queens County Bar Association, the Brooklyn Bar Association, the Nassau County Bar Association and the Suffolk County Bar Association, he presented continuing legal education programs regarding the interdiction of assets during matrimonial and / or bankruptcy and / or other kinds of cases.

At the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the Massachusetts’ Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and the 8th Annual OffshoreAlert Financial Due Diligence Conference, Mr. Abrams also lectured about how assets may be fraudulently concealed both domestically and abroad.

RAYMOND DOWD ESQ., Partner at  Dunnington Bartholow & Miller LLP

Raymond Dowd is a seasoned litigator representing corporations and individuals in federal and state courts and arbitrations.  He is the author of Copyright Litigation Handbook (West 5th Ed. 2010).  Mr. Dowd litigated Bakalar v. Vavra, Index No. 05-CV-3037 (S.D.N.Y.) the first Nazi-era art case ever to be tried in federal court.  In “Following The Money Trails From Marital Assets To Nazi-Looted Art“, Mr. Dowd discusses the methods by which Nazi-looted art was transferred to museums and private collections.  Through an in-depth case study, he demonstrates how to spot “red flags” to detect looted art and how to marshal evidence and analyze potential legal remedies to recover Nazi-looted art.

Mr. Dowd has lectured widely on Nazi-era art restitution cases including at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem Israel; the Jewish Museum, Berlin Germany; The Prague Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets, Czech Republic; the New York State Bar Association and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.  Mr. Dowd represents the heirs of Austrian-Jewish cabaret artist Fritz Grunbaum in Bakalar v. Vavra.

Bakalar, Mr. Grunbaum’s heirs were sued by a Massachusetts collector seeking to clear the title to the Egon Schiele drawing “Seated Woman With Bent Left Leg (Torso)”.  The heirs claim that before passing through Switzerland, the Schiele drawing was looted by the Nazis from Mr. Grunbaum’s apartment in Vienna while he was imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp, where he died penniless in 1941.

LORI LAPIN JONES, ESQ., Member of Lori Lapin Jones PLLC

During “Following The Money Trails From Marital Assets To Nazi-Looted Art“, Lori Lapin Jones examines the concealment of assets in bankruptcy and the ramifications. She also analyzes how bankruptcy trustees locate concealed assets.

Lori Lapin Jones of Lori Lapin Jones PLLC has been practicing bankruptcy law for over 28 years.  She began her career as a staff attorney in the Manhattan District Counsel’s Office of the Internal Revenue Service following which she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Tina L. Brozman, United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of New York.  After her clerkship, Jones spent seventeen years in private practice at the New York City law firms of Dewey Ballantine and Luskin, Stern & Eisler LLP. In 2005, Jones formed Lori Lapin Jones PLLC.

Jones has represented a wide variety of parties in out of court restructurings and in large and small Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 cases in courts around the country.  She has represented debtor in possession lenders, secured and unsecured creditors, creditors’ committees, indenture trustees, landlords, equipment lessors, purchasers of assets, trustees, purchasers and sellers of claims and defendants in adversary proceedings.

Currently, Jones serves as a Chapter 7 Trustee on the panel of Trustees for the Eastern District of New York and as a Court appointed mediator in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.  She has served in a variety of fiduciary roles in Chapter 11 cases including as operating trustee, examiner, post-confirmation trustee and board member. Jones also represents parties in a wide variety of bankruptcy related matters.

Jones co-authored a bimonthly column on bankruptcy law for The New York Law Journal (2005-2008) and co-authored Creditors’ Committee Manual (Warren Gorham & Lamont 1992).  Jones serves on the strategic planning committee and the rules committee for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York.  She serves as a frequent lecturer in the area of bankruptcy law and has taught legal research and writing at New York Law School.

In 2009, Jones was selected by Long Island Business News as one of the top 50 most influential women in business on Long Island.  She is the Vice Chairwoman of the Board of Directors for the Organization for Autism Research.

RICHARD T. PICCIOCHI, Member of Access Forensic Group, LLC

At “Following The Money Trails From Marital Assets To Nazi-Looted Art“, forensic scientist / questioned document examiner Richard T. Picciochi talks about his investigations which have included the high-profile forgery and homicide case of Manhattan socialite Irene Silverman.  By discussing these kinds of cases, Mr. Picciochi reveals how forgeries / spurious documents may be used to fraudulently transfer and conceal assets.

He explains that in such cases, identifying handwriting, machine printing, paper, writing instruments and inks may establish “genuineness”.  During this program Mr. Picciochi also mentions analyzing the physical or chemical properties of documents and discusses searching for latent evidence like indented writing impressions, faded writing, watermarks or fingerprints.

Mr. Picciochi is a former NYPD detective and a forensic document examiner since 1982.  He learned questioned document examination through on-the-job apprenticeship at the NYPD and via training by the FBI and Secret Service.  Some of the cases Mr. Picciochi participated in while at the NYPD were: the assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane (the founder of the JDL); the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 1993; the abduction of Harvey Weinstein, who was buried alive for almost two weeks; and the criminal trial of the Zodiac serial killer in NYC.  He has testified as a forensic document examiner in numerous court proceedings, taught about forensic document examination at Hofstra University and lectured to trainees, police investigators, prosecutors and defense attorneys.

AGENDA*

5:30 PM-6:00 PM           Registration

6:00 PM-6:10 PM          Introduction
Fred L. Abrams

6:10 PM-6:45 PM           Asset Search & Recovery Basics

*Methods Used To Secretly Transfer Assets.
*Financial Intelligence & Interdicting Assets

Across The Globe.
*Asset Concealment Red Flags.
*A Case Of Illegal Snooping?
Fred L. Abrams

6:45 PM-7:20 PM           Nazi-Looted Art Cases

*The Transfer Of Looted Art To Museums &

Private Collections.
*Detecting Nazi-Looted Art, The Red Flags.
*Legal Remedies.
Raymond Dowd

7:20 PM-7:35 PM           Break

7:35 PM-8:10 PM           Bankruptcy Fraud & Trustee Investigations

*Concealing Assets In Bankruptcy Cases

And The Consequences Of Concealment.

*Trustee’s Investigation: Scope & Methods.

Lori Lapin Jones
8:10 PM-8:45 PM            Fighting Fraudulent Asset Transfers By

Using ForensicScience

*Transferring Assets Through False

Documents / Forgery.
*Examining Handwriting & Documents To Establish

Genuineness Or Spuriousness.
Richard T. Picciochi

8:45 PM-9:00 PM            Questions & Answers

*Information Subject To Change

(Last Edited 3 / 23 / 11)

Copyright 2011 Fred L. Abrams