Securities Fraud Lawyers Blog
By Alfred Villoch, III, at Savage, Combs & Villoch, PLLC
Today, the Wall Street Journal ran an article entitled “A Maze of Paper. SEC Judgment against Raider Paul Bilzerian: $62 Million. Collected: $3.7 Million.” In the article, Michael Rothfeld and Brad Reagan write how Paul Bilzerian was a corporate raider in the 1980s who victimized investors, parked stocks in other people’s names, and failed to make disclosures of his interest in other companies, to name a few things. Due to this fraud, Rothfeld and Reagan explain how the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commision (“SEC”) obtained federal court orders for Mr. Bilzerian to pay a whopping $62 million as penalties, but was able to collect only $3.7 million from him.
The WSJ article explores a few methods that Bilzerian used to thwart the SEC’s collection efforts, including moving to another country, but the article touched on one maneuver in particular that is dear to Floridians’ hearts: Bilzerian’s move to Florida to purchase land and build a 28,000-square-foot mansion.