Sidley Allegedly Helped Woodbridge Keep $1.3 Billion Ponzi Going

The bankruptcy trustee tasked with cleaning up a $1.3 billion real estate Ponzi scheme has accused Sidley Austin LLP in California state court of helping Woodbridge Group of Companies LLC defraud investors.

Sidley and nine other law firms “aided and abetted numerous securities violations and fraudulent acts,” according to the complaint filed in California Superior Court Dec. 2. Woodbridge filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and a liquidation trust began helping investors recover their losses earlier in 2019.

State regulators started investigating Woodbridge several years before the scheme collapsed in 2017. Sidley “helped devise a plan to circumvent” a Massachusetts regulator’s ...