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Law firm agrees to pay investors $6.2 million settlement in real estate case(Bulletin, The (Bend, OR) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jan. 15--The years-long battle between Bend-based Pac Equities and the investors the corrupt real estate investment company bilked appears to be over. A law firm based in Reno, Nev., which represented Pac Equities, agreed Monday to pay $6.2 million to settle three investor lawsuits. Michael and Phyllis Rich, who founded Pac Equities, were convicted of taking investors for $18 million after federal investigators found that the couple were running a Ponzi scheme. With the settlement Monday and returns from the sale of assets by a receiver, the investors recovered about 60 cents for every dollar they lost, said Portland attorney Mike Esler, who represented the investors. "Overall, we are happy with the results," Esler said Wednesday by phone. The settlement came after opening statements in a case Monday morning brought by Pac Equities investors against Reno lawyer David Garcia and his firm, Hale Lane Peek Dennison Howard & Anderson, in Multnomah County Circuit Court. Esler said the Nevada law firm and Garcia aided the Riches in violating several state securities laws by preparing financial documents for Pac Equities. Milo Petranovich, a Portland lawyer who represented Garcia and his law firm, argued that the Riches lied to Garcia and altered securities documents after Garcia had insisted on changes, according to a report Wednesday in The Oregonian. Neither Petranovich nor Garcia returned phone calls Wednesday seeking comment. Michael Rich was found guilty by a federal jury in 2007 of bank, mail, tax, wire and securities fraud, obstruction of justice, attempted bank fraud and money laundering, and received a 20-year sentence. He died in custody in 2008. His wife, Phyllis, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and filing a false tax return in 2006, and is serving a four-year prison sentence. The financial settlement was the second paid by a law firm that represented Pac Equities. Bend-based Merrill O'Sullivan paid out $890,000 earlier, according to The Oregonian report. To see more of The Bulletin, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.bendbulletin.com Copyright (c) 2009, The Bulletin, Bend, Ore. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |