Marc Salinas secured a half-million-dollar jury verdict for a client who had been defrauded in an elaborate “Ponzi” scheme. The collateral… a curated collection of the world’s finest wines.
The client, a local businessman, loaned money in exchange for a security interest in the wine collection. After the loan was made, it emerged that the collection never existed. The borrower proved to be a practiced con man who was ultimately imprisoned for swindling investors, and many of his victims brought suit against him directly.
Marc developed a different strategy. Rather than pursue the con man alone, he sued a financier who had brokered the loan - a trustee who purportedly held the wine collection in a trust. Marc argued that, as trustee, the financier had a fiduciary duty to confirm the wine collection truly existed before granting a security interest in the collateral. The case was tried over several days in the Essex County Superior Court, where a jury returned a verdict for Marc’s client.