Blair Down

A United States law firm accused of lining its own pockets by cutting a deal with a telemarketing fraudster to the detriment of one of its clients - an asset recovery firm whose investors include Lines Overseas Management - has been ordered by a court to produce all of its financial statements and tax returns from 2000 to the present.The order to compel South Carolina-based Ness Motley Loadholt Richardson & Poole to produce the documents was issued by the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on March 14, 2003 upon application by plaintiffs Interclaim Holdings Ltd. and Interclaim Recovery Ltd., whose operations are based in Ireland and ultimately owned by a Bermuda company.

One arm of an asset recovery group that is registered in Bermuda and Ireland has gone into liquidation as a defensive measure in a bitter legal battle in North America for control of the assets of a convicted criminal. Interclaim Recovery Ltd., of Ireland, applied for voluntary liquidation on November 7, 2001 after a Canadian judge ordered it to pay CDN$2.2 million (US$1.37 million) in legal costs to the crook, Blair Down, and his associates.

International asset recovery firm Interclaim is suing its former law firm for allegedly cutting it out of a settlement deal with a crook who made tens of millions of dollars by ripping off the elderly. Interclaim Holdings Ltd. and Interclaim Recovery Ltd. filed a lawsuit against Ness Motley Loadholt Richardson & Poole at the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on December 4, 2000.

Debt recovery firm Interclaim (Bermuda) Limited made international headlines recently after a series of daring legal manoeuvres in several countries against the type of heartless criminals who have become accustomed to getting away with their crimes.The company, which operates from Dublin, Ireland, has successfully frozen in the region of US$200 million of assets linked with Blair Down, a Canadian businessman who created his wealth by ripping off the elderly.