Saul Ewing attorneys have served as federal equity receivers, special masters, and counsel to court-appointed independent monitors, receivers, trustees and public fiduciaries. Trusted by the courts, government agencies and private litigants to act in a neutral, fact-finding capacity, we bring a meticulous approach to supervising compliance, safeguarding assets, remediating as required by government order, and resolving complex disputes while scaling our involvement to the need at hand.
Our work as independent monitors or counsel to monitors includes overseeing pharmaceutical companies in the aftermath of national opioid litigation. In these matters, we have conducted independent reviews, helped ensure compliance with settlement agreements, found opportunities for systemic improvement, and worked with various different constituencies to implement those changes. The results have benefitted not only the monitored companies most directly affected, but the industry at large.
We serve as equity receivers in enforcement actions and proceedings brought by federal regulatory agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Our team has seized, marshaled, preserved and liquidated assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In these cases, which often involve claims of investment fraud or unfair or deceptive trade practices, we have also undertaken complex forensic fraud examinations and investigations.
We typically work as special masters in litigation involving financial institutions, cryptocurrency, matters with parallel criminal proceedings, or cases with chain-of-custody or evidence-handling issues. We have significant experience litigating such topics, and as such, we can identify and recruit subject matter experts when necessary. Drawing on our extensive experience with complex investigations, we often conduct onsite examinations, interviews or depositions of key employees, in camera reviews, and produce objective reports and recommendations for the court’s consideration.
Our team includes former federal prosecutors and government officials, including former Assistant United States Attorneys and National Security Division and Central Intelligence Agency personnel. Likewise, we have substantial experience representing victims of crime and defending accused companies and individuals in a wide variety of financial crime. This firsthand experience and technical knowledge allows us to anticipate the behavior of parties accused of fraud, understand both legitimate business and complex fraud schemes, recognize the varying interests of all stakeholders, and bring insights from all sides to the negotiation process.
Saul Ewing attorneys served as monitors, receivers, special masters or counsel to such parties in these select matters:
- We are counsel to the court-appointed independent monitor of Mallinckrodt, arising out of the company’s bankruptcy stemming from national opioid litigation. Our work involved rigorous investigation, auditing, and monitoring of Mallinckrodt’s compliance with the requirements of the Operating Injunction adopted by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. We developed a work plan and audit plan to meet court-imposed reporting deadlines, reviewed voluminous materials, and interviewed dozens of employees in key operational components. We worked with state attorneys general, the Opioid Claimants Committee, Mallinckrodt and its outside counsel to develop dozens of recommendations to enhance Mallinckrodt’s suspicious order monitoring (SOM) and internal compliance programs to mitigate the risks of controlled substance diversion and prohibited promotional and lobbying activities.
- We acted as counsel to the court-appointed independent monitor of Endo, which also arose from the company’s bankruptcy stemming from national opioid litigation. Our work involved developing an expedited review and compliance plan, given stakeholders’ shared goal of Endo emerging from bankruptcy within 18 months. We undertook investigation, auditing, monitoring, and public reporting of Endo’s compliance with the requirements of the Operating Injunction adopted by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York. We developed and obtained multiple stakeholders’ support for a work plan to meet court-imposed reporting deadlines, reviewed voluminous materials, conducted site visits, and interviewed dozens of employees and contractors in key operational components. We worked with state attorneys general, the Opioid Claimants Committee, Endo, and its outside counsel to develop recommendations to enhance Endo’s suspicious order monitoring (SOM), related technology, data collection, employee evaluation, and internal compliance programs to mitigate the risks of controlled substance diversion and prohibited promotional, lobbying, sales/grant, and employee-management activities.
- We served as an Independent Monitor to evaluate a construction company’s compliance with an administrative agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pertaining to violations under the Clean Air Act regarding work practices and the disposal of regulated asbestos containing material. Our work included the development of a monitoring work plan and the issuance of detailed compliance reports every six months during the duration of the three-year administrative agreement. The administrative agreement required the selection of an independent monitor with sufficient education, training, and experience in the regulatory and industry standards applicable to regulated asbestos containing material.
- We acted as the United States Special Master in a contentious federal litigation involving a bank’s potential responsibility for failing to detect or prevent a multi-million-dollar embezzlement by one of its (now-convicted) customer’s employees. This work involved impartially resolving discovery disputes, investigating allegations of spoliation, serving as a mediator, and assessing the ramifications of the underlying criminal conviction and asset forfeitures arising from the convicted employee’s separate criminal case.
- We acted as the United States Special Master in a joint criminal and civil enforcement action filed by multiple federal agencies against an affiliated group of entities and their principals who were accused of deceiving and defrauding thousands of consumers out of millions of dollars in connection with an educational application services fraudulent scheme. This appointment authorized the special master and receiver to commence and preside over discovery and evidentiary proceedings. The special master ultimately negotiated the disgorgement and enforcement of a final judgment and order entered by the federal district court that appointed the special master.
- We acted as the equity receiver in a case brought by the FTC involving an automobile leasing Ponzi scheme. We conducted an extensive investigation into the alleged (and ultimately proven at trial) fraudulent activities of the individual and corporate defendants; located and froze assets; coordinated with forensic accountants, IT specialists and enforcement agency counsel; testified as an expert receiver at trial; and coordinated the liquidation and recoupment of real and personal property valued in the tens of millions of dollars and located in multiple states across the country. Most investors recovered 80-90% of their losses.
- We acted as the equity receiver in a complex wireless telecommunications enforcement action brought by the FTC involving a multi-level Ponzi scheme that required a rule waiver by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission with the assistance of two U.S. Senators to preserve and revive more than 8,000 wireless specialized mobile radio licenses that had expired or were on the verge of expiring when the Court appointed the receiver. Once the licenses were revived, the receivership team executed their strategy to securitize and sell the licenses to a global wireless telecommunications company for an amount that exceeded $60 million. The receiver’s efforts enabled injured consumers to recover all or substantially all of their invested funds.
