The Expert Podcast

This is what we mean when we talk about third-party liability. If you've been a victim of a scam, most of the time victims get their money back because of the involvement of third parties. In the big cases—Bernie Madoff, Sam Bankman-Fried, and Scott Rothstein in Florida—the victims got most of their money back, if not all, because third parties had to kick in.

So sometimes it's banks, and sometimes it's advertising companies. In this case, it's an accounting firm. Investors have filed a lawsuit against an accounting firm that helped a client maintain a business. Anytime a Ponzi schemer, a fraudster, or a scammer steals money, they need help. They need banks, they need advertisers, they need accountants, and they need attorneys. Many times, those parties don't actually participate in the scam. They're not part of the scam, but they enabled it by not asking enough questions or performing sufficient due diligence. So those third parties have often created liability without even knowing it, and the victims in many cases will get those third parties to contribute to the recovery.

Many times, they have insurance policies they can put money into. Some of the money that a scammer took was spent. They spent it on dinners, vacations, and other things you can't get money back. They could sell their house and their cars and whatever's money that they have in crypto, but the deficiency, the shortfall, can come from third parties. It's a very commonly overlooked method. Make sure that if you're a victim of a scam, you do a proper investigation to find out what third parties may have potential liability so you can get your money back.