Firm was retained by Counsel on behalf of, a Chapter 7 Trustee in Bankruptcy to establish a legal basis from a financial perspective to justify a search for offshore assets of the bankrupt debtor. The Debtor had filed a Chapter 7 in 2013 and soon was dead.  He was survived by his second wife, after his first wife had obtained a $28 million Judgment against the Debtor in 2006. Over the five years, legal proceedings were filed in several foreign countries to trace the flow of funds and to locate assets. In 2023, a recovery of $14.8 million was made by the investigative team.

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“The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office in São Paulo denounced on Monday, January 7, 2018, 17 members of a criminal organization that worked on several fronts for the practice of financial-administrative illicit crimes at Banco Cruzeiro do Sul SA…between January 2007 and March 2012.”

Subsequently, the bank was liquidated and audits showed “impairment of the institution’s economic and financial situation and serious violation of rules issued by the National Monetary Council and the Central Bank.”

Firm was retained by Counsel on behalf of a Brazilian client who sought confirmation of a tracing exercise to recover property valued over $20 million in the State of New York. This action was necessary given the practice of ‘illicit crimes’ by management of a financial institution in Brazil that resulted in material over-statement of its economic condition. The practice included the fraudulent removal of funds from the bank to acquire the property.

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The Washington Post reported on July 16, 1998 the headlines “World Bank Hires Auditors to Probe Its Own Spending” “Possible Kickbacks, Embezzlement Cited”.  It states: “World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn acknowledged yesterday that within the past two months he has setup a special internal fraud team and hired the global accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.” The Post reported on October 24, 1998 an article entitled ‘World Bank Probes Pakistan Project’ where it referred to PWC and its work on tracing ‘Elwan’s international holdings and vast financial records of the Pakistan projects.’

As the engagement partner, I led our team in conducting global investigations into allegations of corruption, conflicts of interest and fraud, regarding the Bank’s loan program and to advise on the Bank’s anti-corruption initiative.  This effort was the result of President Wolfensohn’s belief that “corruption effects development.”

After 18 months, our work led to the disbarment or removal of various companies and individuals in several foreign countries from any future involvement with any World Bank project.  Thereafter the Bank created its own permanent investigation group.

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In June 2014, MasTec (NYSE: MTZ) purchased Pacer Construction and its related entities from Richard Pelletier, who was the founder and CEO of Pacer, his company Richard Pelletier Holdings Inc. and two others.  MasTec Inc. paid RP/RPHI a cash sum of approximately Can$59 million for his proportionate equity interest in Pacer.  At the time of the purchase, Pelletier was a resident of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. However, in the year 2015, Pelletier and his family moved to the Cayman Islands.

Following the acquisition, it became apparent that Pelletier had falsely represented the financial condition of the companies.  In March 2016, MasTec’s and Pacer’s claims caused them to commence an arbitration against RP/RPHI and the two other sellers.

In March 2019, an International Arbitration Panel determined that RP/RPHI were jointly and severally liable to pay to Pacer the sum of Can$55,775,277.50. After the two other sellers had repaid their proportionate share to MasTec, RP/RPHI remained liable to Pacer for the amount of some Can$34 million.

MasTec’s counsel includes Sequor Law partner Edward Davis in Miami who retained Lindquist in order to determine the current whereabouts of the purchase funds that were paid to RP in 2014.

After a study of several personal and corporate bank accounts of Pelletier at various financial institutions in four countries (including tax havens) during the years 2014 to 2019 along with other related financial documentation, Lindquist was able to disclose the movement of funds through the various countries and their use, particularly their lifestyle and the identification of assets.  Subsequently Counsel has obtained freezing injunctions as the asset recovery process continues.

MasTec Expands Canadian Oil Sands Presence with Acquisition of Pacer Construction

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