Client Recovery After Developer’s Misappropriation of Funds
Client Issue
In this joint venture partnership dispute, we represented a financial investor in a $200 million residential complex in downtown San Francisco. Our client believed that the property developer had misappropriated funds and had overcharged in the development of the property, using the proceeds to develop other properties.
The Anthony Ostlund Approach
This case demanded a thorough forensic analysis of a $200 million real estate development in California. Anthony Ostlund hired a national forensic accounting firm to do a complete analysis of the construction project from a financial and forensic fraud standpoint. We then initiated an arbitration proceeding in San Francisco to seek an accounting for the development project and a damage award for the alleged misconduct by the developer. Over the course of our representation, our team analyzed nearly 2 million documents and successfully argued approximately a dozen motions.
Result Achieved
On the verge of a three week arbitration hearing, the developer agreed to a settlement with a combination of financial benefits and property transactions. Our client’s recovery of cash and property exceeded $73 million.
“Since 2001, Rich Ostlund has led three complex litigation cases for entities for which I am general counsel. *** Most recently, in April of 2009, in another confidential arbitration, Rich’s efforts and skill led to the recovery of in excess of $73.3 million in cash and real property in an action involving claims of fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, violation of the terms of an Operating Agreement and breach of contract by a developer-venture partner in a $200 million dollar luxury high-rise condo project in San Francisco. The 2009 recovery was the culmination of intensive litigation over two years involving complex issues, over a dozen critical motions, each of which was resolved in favor of our client, and the examination, collation, and forensic analysis of over two million pages of documents. The task was enormous, the effort monumental, and the result achieved due only to the application of exceptional skill.”
– Richard (Rick) Barney, Jr., General Counsel to 555 4th Street Associates
555 4th Street Associates & Wayne Clark v. Cassidy et. al
