They informed me that their claims had been overwritten by a law company called Butzel Long. These are victims that had submitted their own claims and they wanted to know who Butzel Long were and why they had registered a claim in their name.
After making contact with Gilardi, I was shocked to find out that my own claim had been hijacked by Butzel Long, and they had submitted claims for hundreds of victims. I explained to them that:
1) I had never heard of Butzel Long.
2) I had already submitted my own claim
3) I did not have a law firm working for me.
The information I was given was that any payment in my name would be paid to Butzel Long and it would be up to me to make contact with them and get the money transferred into my name!!!
I then went onto Google and found out that Butzel Long is a law practice in New York. I made contact with this law firm and spent several hours trying to speak to someone about why they had submitted a claim for me and the other victims that had contacted me. After many phone calls and many hours spent on the phone I had not managed to speak to anyone but the receptionist who said she had no idea who was dealing with this matter, why they had filed a claim in my name and despite repeatedly trying I had only been put through to voice mails, where I left messages. Guess what, no one bothered to phone me back and explain the situation. What I did manage to find out was that a certain Peter Morgenstern is associated with Butzel Long and it would seem that my name -along with several hundred other names - came from Peter Morgenstern.
It has taken me weeks of telephone calls, many emails and threats of legal action to get Gilardi to remove Butzel Long from my claim and make sure that any payment comes to me and not to a third party.
I also made contact with Grant Thornton who informed me that Butzel Long had also filed claims for hundreds of victims, many of whom had already filed their own claims. The difference was that Grant Thornton wrote back and said they would only consider claims from Butzel Long where the claims were accompanied with a signed declaration of consent.
I would advise anyone who has ever made contact with Peter Morgenstern or any other lawyer to check with Gilardi and make sure that they have not hijacked your claim. Remember these lawyers do notwork for free and if they have submitted a claim on your behalf, they will not be doing it for free!!
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!
For a full and open debate on the Stanford Receivership visit:
http://sivg.org.ag/
The Stanford International Victims Group Forum
http://sivg.org.ag/
The Stanford International Victims Group Forum
This situation is even worst than I thought. Since posting this message, I have received information that victims who have never signed with Peter Morgenstern (or any lawyer) have had claims made in their name by Butzel Long. The only place Butzel Long could have got details of victims claims is from the details that are held by Ralph Janvey. This situation is very worrying and is clearly an abuse and someone needs to look into this immediately. I would advise ALL victims who have made a claim to check with Gilardi and made sure that their details have not been hijacked and a claim submitted on their behalf without the victims knowledge. Please do not assume that because you have never signed up with a lawyer that your claim is safe because it clearly is not. Check it out before payments start going out and you find your money has gone to a third party and you are being charged a percentage for work that you did not ask for or want!!!
ReplyDeleteButzel Long appears to be in financial difficulty. In January, the firm announced it could no longer afford to pay their employee pension plan, which was underfunded by several million dollars. They had to ask for a federal agency bailout.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2013/01/michigan-based_law_firm_seeks.html