Philly Lawyer Drops Delaware Ponzi Suit Against Ex-Best Friend

A Philadelphia lawyer has dropped a Delaware lawsuit accusing his best friend of 30 years, another attorney, of duping him into investing in a Ponzi scheme on the verge of collapse.

The Chancery Court suit sought to “pierce the veil” of Main Street Business Funding LLC, allegedly a “sham LLC” founded by Keller & Goggin PC partner Robert S. Goggin III to cover up millions in unrelated losses he suffered after investing misappropriated client funds.

The case was filed by John P. Lane Jr., who accused Goggin of persuading friends to help him make up the losses by investing in Main Street, supposedly a “factoring” company that purchased accounts receivable for cash.

But Main Street itself soon fell victim to a $2.5 million embezzlement scheme run by a “consultant,” Michael Goldner, and his cousin Joel Luber, an attorney at Reger Rizzo & Darnall LLP, according to a separate suit Goggin filed in Pennsylvania state court.

Main Street also sued Goldner, Luber, and his firm in Philadelphia federal court in August. That case was remanded to state court.

The LLC is currently facing involuntary bankruptcy proceedings brought by Lane and two other investors. It’s also been hit with eight other suits accusing Goggin of coaxing investors into keeping their money with the company while he was pulling his out.

Lane, who represented himself, also claimed Goggin tried to make him the fall guy for an unrelated conspiracy involving Charles Hallinan, the imprisoned “godfather of payday lending,” and a scheme to fund Goggin’s clients through third parties.

An attorney for Goggin called the Chancery Court suit “unfortunate” when it was filed, saying it was short on hard facts. But the lawyer said he couldn’t comment further without more time to review it.

Goggin later moved to dismiss the case on jurisdictional grounds. His role as Main Street’s manager didn’t create enough of a nexus to Delaware for the suit to proceed there, because the case involved only Lane’s rights as a creditor, not Goggin’s duties toward the company, he argued.

Lane voluntarily stipulated to dismissal of the case, without prejudice, late last month. The motion didn’t explain his reasons for withdrawing his claims, and a review of the related dockets didn’t reveal a clear link to any developments in those cases.

Vice Chancellor Morgan T. Zurn granted the motion Wednesday.

Goggin was represented in the Chancery Court by Gellert Scali Busenkell & Brown LLC.

The case is Lane v. Goggin, Del. Ch., No. 2020-0330, 4/22/20.