Lehman, Lee & Xu - Controversy Over Fraud in United States

Controversy Over Fraud in United States

On March 15, 2012, a United States District Court (SDNY) entered a default judgment against Lehman, Lee & Xu and its Managing Director Edward Eugene Lehman in the amount of:

$1,135,850 in compensatory damages;
$3,407,550 in treble damages under 18 U.S.C. §1964(c) for plaintiff's RICO conspiracy claims;
$406,339.36 in attorneys' fees and costs;
$150,000 in punitive damages; and
$297,997.25 in prejudgment interest.

The lawsuit, filed by United States clients of the firm, alleged that defendant Lehman fraudulently induced the plaintiffs and their investors to deposit approximately $1.2 million into an escrow account with the defendant on the pretext that Lehman, Lee & Xu would provide the plaintiffs with legal, financial, and accounting services, including services related to investment projects in Hong Kong. The plaintiffs allege that, after depositing the money in the escrow account, they began to lose confidence that the defendants were in fact performing the services agreed to. The defendants then allegedly refused the plaintiffs’ request that their money be returned to them and ceased responding to the plaintiffs’ further attempts to communicate with them.

The plaintiffs claimed to have subsequently discovered that the defendants’ conduct was part of a scheme to defraud the plaintiffs of at least an additional $ 2 million. Based on these allegations, the plaintiffs asserted claims for 1) violation of the civil RICO statute (18 U.S.C. §1962(c)), 2) conversion, 3) aiding and abetting conversion, 4) breach of fiduciary duty, 5) aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty, 6) professional negligence, 7) securities fraud, 8) fraud, 9) setting aside fraudulent conveyances, 10) unfair business practices, 11) unjust enrichment, 12) misrepresentation likely to cause confusion, and 13) false and misleading advertising.

Read more about this topic:  Lehman, Lee & Xu

Famous quotes containing the words united states, controversy, fraud, united and/or states:

    The House of Lords, architecturally, is a magnificent room, and the dignity, quiet, and repose of the scene made me unwillingly acknowledge that the Senate of the United States might possibly improve its manners. Perhaps in our desire for simplicity, absence of title, or badge of office we may have thrown over too much.
    M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)

    Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.
    Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)

    The disfranchisement of a single legal elector by fraud or intimidation is a crime too grave to be regarded lightly.
    Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)

    What chiefly distinguishes the daily press of the United States from the press of all other countries is not its lack of truthfulness or even its lack of dignity and honor, for these deficiencies are common to the newspapers everywhere, but its incurable fear of ideas, its constant effort to evade the discussion of fundamentals by translating all issues into a few elemental fears, its incessant reduction of all reflection to mere emotion. It is, in the true sense, never well-informed.
    —H.L. (Henry Lewis)

    I do seriously believe that if we can measure among the States the benefits resulting from the preservation of the Union, the rebellious States have the larger share. It destroyed an institution that was their destruction. It opened the way for a commercial life that, if they will only embrace it and face the light, means to them a development that shall rival the best attainments of the greatest of our States.
    Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)