Moss Adams hit with $150 million lawsuit related to Meridian Mortgage funds
The Seattle Times reports that Seattle accounting firm, Moss Adams, has been hit with a lawsuit related to the "biggest Ponzi scheme in Pacific Northwest history," the collapse of Meridian Mortgage funds.
Meridian Mortgage filed bankruptcy in 2010.
The story in Wednesday's editions say the suit was filed on behalf of bankrupty trustee Mark Calvert and alleges the accounting firm should pay $150 million for its failure to detect an alleged fraud scheme.
The suit said Moss Adams, the 11th-biggest CPA firm in the country, issued clean audits for six of the Meridian funds between 2001 and 2007. The company has a large office in downtown Spokane.
A dozen Meridian funds collapsed in summer 2010, and last August Meridian founder Frederick Darren Berg pleaded guilty to fraud and admitted diverting "approximately $100 million" to personal uses and to perpetuate the Ponzi scheme.
The Times said a Moss Adams spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment. At least 750 individuals and others lost more than $150 million in Meridian's real-estate funds, according to the lawsuit. (Berg's plea agreement put the total raised at $280 million.)