Receivers' Huddle Series: Affinity Fraud: Scams, Scoundrels, and Receiverships
Wednesday, February 28 | 2:00 - 3:30 PM ET (11:00 AM - 12:30 PM PT)
Affinity frauds are among the most devastating frauds for investors. Breach of trust is fundamental. Devastation is heightened from the fraudster's close relationship with the victims. There are many lessons to be learned from handling receiverships involving affinity fraud. This program will introduce the topic and discuss affinity frauds through the lens of receivership actions, which allow us to see and reconstruct how such frauds occur and deal with their aftermath. The presentation will also serve as an opportunity to draw public attention and awareness to the signs and signals of such frauds, how to recognize them, avoid them, report them, and mitigate the promulgation and effects of them.
NAFER Members: FREE
Non-Member Attendees: $50
Presented by:
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|  |  | Ira Bodenstein Cozen O'Connor | Samantha Denny SEC | Kevin Duff Rachlis Duff & Peel | Benjamin Hanauer SEC | Neville Reid Fox Swibel Levin & Carroll | Elizabeth Streit CFTC |
About Our Speakers
Ira Bodenstein
Cozen O'Connor
Ira is a partner at Cozen O’Connor in Chicago. He also is a Past President and Founder of NAFER and frequent presenter at NAFER educational events. Ira is a receiver and bankruptcy trustee, including having served as U.S. Trustee for this Region. Both he and his firm represent receivers and trustees. Ira has a keen understanding of the trustee process and how to efficiently achieve the optimum resolution for the involved parties. He counsels bankruptcy clients on the necessity and timing of filing reorganization cases, and the rights of unsecured and secured creditors prior to and subsequent to bankruptcy filing. Ira is experienced in all facets of Chapter 11 reorganization cases, including preparing and confirming plans of reorganization in debtor cases, representing creditors’ committees, opposing debtors' plans on behalf of creditors, and representing creditors and debtors in preference and fraudulent conveyance litigation. He also counsels lenders on their rights as secured creditors. Ira is a member of the private panel of Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustees and also represents other panel trustees. Ira has also served as a federal equity receiver in SEC and DOL actions and has represented federal equity receivers in SEC and CFTC actions.
Samantha Denny
SEC
Samantha (“Sam”) Denny is an Attorney Advisor in the Division of Examinations in the SEC’s Chicago Regional Office. Prior to joining the SEC, Sam worked at the FTC litigating consumer protection cases in federal district court involving the fraudulent marketing and sale of a variety of products and services. Some of her cases included fraudulent tech support services, online negative option subscriptions, and a credit card interest rate reduction scam. These matters frequently included the appointment of a receiver to locate assets and determine whether the business could continue operating. She received her B.A. in English from Stanford University, and her J.D. from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. Kevin Duff
Rachlis Duff & Peel Kevin Duff is a commercial litigator who also serves as a federal equity receiver and counsel to receivers. He is a Past President of NAFER and has served on NAFER’s Board of Directors since 2013. He has significant experience in litigation involving Ponzi schemes and other similar illegal, illicit, fraudulent, and sham transactions, including pursuing a spectrum of remedies to recover money and other assets from defendants and third-parties. Mr. Duff has represented international lenders, developers, underwriters, mortgage portfolio traders and managers, property owners, hedge funds, and other investors in securities, finance and banking, intellectual property, real estate, and many other complex litigation matters for over 30 years. Benjamin Hanauer SEC Ben Hanauer is a Supervisory Trial Counsel with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement. He leads the Trial Unit for the SEC’s Chicago Regional Office, which has jurisdiction over nine Midwestern states. Ben is responsible for investigating, litigating, and taking to trial all manner of SEC enforcement actions throughout the country. He recommends equity receiver candidates to federal courts, and has litigated and tried several matters involving receivers. His experience includes investigating and prosecuting a broad spectrum of securities fraud schemes, including various affinity frauds.
Neville Reid
Fox Swibel Levin & Carroll
Neville Reid is an attorney and a capital partner who co-chairs the Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Creditors’ Rights Group at the law firm of Fox, Swibel, Levin & Carroll LLP in Chicago. Prior to Fox Swibel, Neville was a partner in the bankruptcy group of Mayer Brown LLP, where he practiced law for 22 years. His principal expertise is advising companies, lenders, receivers, trustees, investors and other clients on a wide array of insolvency-related issues, including restructuring corporations and their relationships with creditors, advising lenders on restructuring loans with distressed borrowers, and structuring acquisitions of distressed assets for investors. Neville has over 30 years of experience in this area, including 27 years as a bankruptcy trustee who is frequently appointed by bankruptcy judges to investigate fraudulent transactions and liquidate assets in bankruptcy cases for the benefit of creditors. Neville has also served as a receiver appointed by the SEC to recover assets for defrauded investors in a Ponzi scheme case currently pending in Chicago.
Elizabeth Streit
CFTC
Beth is a Chief Trial Attorney of the CFTC’s Division of Enforcement in the Chicago Regional Office. She leads teams of lawyers and investigators in the investigation and prosecution of highly complex investigations of potential violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and its Regulations. She has worked on countless Ponzi schemes over her 25 years at the Commission, including affinity frauds.
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