A reinsurance businessman who sought a $12 million loan that never materialized is suing Miami-based law firm Lydecker Diaz for the role he says the firm and former partner Alan Feldman played in his becoming prey to a convicted fraudster.

In a stinging complaint filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court by prominent litigator Andy Hall, founder of Hall, Lamb, Hall & Leto, on behalf of Tal Piccione and his business—U.S. RE Companies—the Miami firm Lydecker Diaz, three lawyers, and two other men and their companies face nearly a dozen counts related to the alleged fraud. The counts range from gross negligence and failure to disclose known information to negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, vicarious liability, negligent supervision, fraudulent misrepresentation and successor liability.

The suit also seeks civil remedies for alleged criminal practices, including the making of false statements to obtain property or credit, organized fraud, communications fraud and compounding felony. Some of the counts against the defendants carry triple damages amounting to a potential $60 million payout in compensatory damages.

“Hutchens was aided and abetted by the gross negligence and fraudulent misrepresentations of lawyers, career criminals, and other wrongdoers in order to defraud prospective borrowers out of millions of dollars, which the perpetrators would keep for their own use and benefit by means of the fraudulent advanced fee lending scheme,” the complaint says.

To expand his reinsurance business, Piccione, chairman, CEO and president of U.S. RE Companies, loaned his company money to pay large advanced lending fees for a loan from Westmoreland Equity Fund. Then-Lydecker Diaz attorney Alan Feldman had introduced Piccione to Westmoreland, which turned out to be a front company for Sandy Hutchens, a fraudster with a string of aliases who schemed from Canada for over a decade, according to the complaint. Piccione's company paid nearly half a million dollars in fees, plus nearly $300,000 in other costs. As of last summer, Feldman no longer works at the firm, Hall said.

The suit is filed against Hutchens, the Lydecker Diaz firm, as well as Alan Feldman and his father, Bernard Feldman, firm partner Elias Correa and managing partner Richard Lydecker, as well as Westmoreland and American Escrow & Settlement Services. The firm and several of the defendants are also named in a federal complaint filed in Pennsylvania in October. A Denver federal court awarded more than $8 million to nearly 130 loan fraud victims in a class action suit against Hutchens, his wife and daughter in May.

In 2015, through Lydecker, Alan Feldman represented Piccione's company as well as Westmoreland and Hutchens, who was acting as Ed Ryan in negotiations, according to the complaint. A letter of intent to loan U.S. RE $10 million, and later $12 million, instructed Piccione to pay fees to American Escrow. Feldman also sent Piccione an email attaching proof of funds from American Escrow of more than $248 million, that he and the firm should have known was false, according to the complaint.

He should have known, Hall said, because Bernard Feldman, who was disbarred in Florida and Michigan after making false representations to clients, formed American Escrow in 2014. The state had barred him from working as a title agent and he had been arrested for grand theft and organized fraud before the funds letter. What's more, Lydecker Diaz's Philadelphia office has the same 36th floor address as Westmoreland's office, according to the complaint.

In 2004, Hutchens pled guilty in Canada to four counts of fraud after serving a conditional sentence. News articles about Hutchens had begun appearing by at the latest 2008 and in October 2015, Piccione brought up concerns about Westmoreland's reputation to Alan Feldman. In emails and discussions, Feldman said he had heard about the negative report, assured him they were false and also that the loan was coming, Hall said.

Feldman had brokered another similar prospective loan through Hutchens and Westmoreland in 2015 for a Miami-Dade nursery via Hutchens' false name, “Ed Ryan.” After receiving assurances from Feldman that Westmoreland was legitimate, the nursery victims began to uncover the pattern of behavior in 2016 and threatened litigation unless their funds were returned. The firm ultimately returned the funds and no suit was filed, the complaint states.

Lydecker Diaz's attorneys said Piccione's suit is frivolous and an attempt to avoid repaying obligations to Lydecker.

“The Firm did not represent Piccione or his controlled companies in the transaction that is the subject of his lawsuit. Rather, Piccione was represented by his own counsel,” Connie Anderson, a professional liability partner at Lewis Brisbois who is representing Lydecker and Feldman, said in a statement. “Notwithstanding the fact that he [Piccione] was represented by his own counsel and that he claims to have been defrauded by a lender of last resort while attempting to obtain a loan for a speculative business, he now seeks to shift to the Firm (to whom Piccione is heavily indebted) obligations for which the firm had no responsibility.”

Piccione and his companies are heavily indebted to Lydecker, Anderson said. The firm was forced to initiate proceedings against him and his company in one of many suits filed against Piccione or his controlled entities, including fraud claims by the Departments of Financial Services in Florida and Nevada. She said the Florida DFS had obtained a judgment against one of Piccione's entities for $2.3M stemming from the insolvency of one of his companies.