California Bankruptcy Trustee Praises Dinsmore Team’s Counsel in Debt Firm Fraud Case
August, 2023 - Louisville, Kentucky
We are grateful to Richard Marshack of Marshack Hays LLP for recently trusting the Dinsmore team with a very important and widely reported bankruptcy matter for which he was the appointed Trustee, that affected more than 50,000 consumer clients across the United States.
“The work of Chris Celentino, Christopher Ghio and the five other attorneys on the Dinsmore team has been nothing short of amazing,” Marshack said.
The case:
Tens of thousands of clients trying to improve their financial situation turned to Southern California based Litigation Practice Group (“LPG”), a now bankrupt law firm, in an effort to have their debts challenged in court and ultimately, improve their economic livelihood. Tony Diab, a twice-disbarred lawyer, orchestrated a scheme to bankrupt LPG, a $150 million a year law firm, by fraudulently and illegally transferring all clients and associated accounts receivable to a network of other firms.
“Within a few months of being retained, the Dinsmore team discovered facts that would normally take more than a year to discover,” Marshack said “and these facts will form the basis for dozens of meritorious claims by the bankruptcy estate.”
Less than ten days after Dinsmore’s engagement as special counsel, our team of attorneys secured a no-notice temporary restraining order seizing all assets of the successor firms/fraudulent transferees. Over objection by the United States Trustee and other government agencies, Richard Marshack, with guidance from Dinsmore and his general counsel Marshack Hays LLP, managed to operate LPG, ethically reform the contracts to protect the consumer clients of LPG and attract significant interest in the sale of LPG’s assets. The sale of LPG’s assets was approved over major objection and generated an active auction, with the highest bidder agreeing to pay an estimated $50 million. “The sale closed on August 4, 2023, and the United States Trustee who has previously sought to divest our client, the Trustee of his appointment by way of a motion to dismiss or convert the case, has recently agreed to withdraw that motion and allow our Chapter 11 Trustee client to continue the good work he is doing,” said Dinsmore’s Christopher Ghio.
“Those court orders prevented certain of the defendants from profiting on the assets that were wrongfully transferred to them,” Marshack said. “The Dinsmore team remains my counsel in this case and is pursuing dozens of claims against insiders and officers and against transferees of those who wrongfully have possession of other assets that belong to the estate and eventually the creditors of the estate.”
The work handled by Dinsmore for this matter includes bankruptcy law, labor law, attorneys' code of professional responsibility, federal and state consumer protection regulations, class action claims, landlord tenant law and contract law.
