The receiver for convicted Ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford's defunct bank has settled claims with the Miami attorney who used to serve as Stanford's chief of staff.

Yolanda Suarez was dismissed with prejudice as a defendant in the litigation, which had alleged her "fingerprints are all over the Stanford Ponzi scheme from beginning to end."

Court-appointed receiver Ralph S. Janvey has also asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas to approve a $65 million settlement, plus attorney fees, with Big Law firm Greenberg Traurig, the last named defendant in the case that involved Suarez.

As part of the Suarez settlement, the Florida attorney surrendered $1.3 million in funds to the receivership that originally came from her employment with Stanford, according to Baker Botts partner Kevin Sadler of Palo Alto, California, who represents Janvey.

"Funds like that come into the receivership," Sadler explained. "From time to time, the receivership makes distributions to victims. We just received approval for our sixth distribution a few weeks ago: It will be about a little under $50 million."

Suarez didn't return a call seeking comment before deadline, and neither did her attorney, Michael Stanley of Stanley Law in Houston.

The case is part of a large chain of litigation, spanning 11 years, arising from the 2009 implosion of Stanford's ponzi scheme.

In 2012, a federal jury found Stanford, former chairman of Stanford Financial Group, guilty of 13 criminal counts in connection with a conspiracy to defraud investors who bought $7 billion in certificates of deposit sold through Stanford International Bank. Stanford was sentenced to 110 years in prison.

Carlos Loumiet Carlos Loumiet. Photo: AM Holt

The complaint in Janvey v. Greenberg Traurig alleged that Florida lawyer Carlos Loumiet, a former attorney at Hunton & Williams and later Greenberg Traurig, helped Stanford shield his bank from regulators, and deceived investors into thinking it was a legitimate business. Loumeit, who has denied wrongdoing and now serves as a partner in Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough in Miami, was not named as a defendant in the case. The lawsuit also alleged that Suarez, a Florida solo who was formerly general counsel of Stanford Financial Group and later Stanford's chief of staff, also assisted him with the Ponzi scheme.

Hunton & Williams dropped out of the litigation after agreeing to a $34 million settlement in 2017.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in April that the Texas attorney immunity doctrine, which shields lawyers from liability to third parties for actions they took while representing a client, would apply to protect Greenberg Traurig from the claims.

If U.S. District Judge David Godbey of Dallas approves of Janvey's proposed settlement with Greenberg Traurig after the February 2020 hearing, then it would end this leg of the litigation.

The law firm's attorneys, Jim Cowles and Sim Israeloff, both shareholders in Cowles & Thompson in Dallas, each didn't immediately return calls or emails seeking comment.

"We've had hundreds and hundreds of lawsuits in this receivership over the years. Ms. Suarez was just one of them. Greenberg was just one of them. We continue to prosecute lawsuits for the victims," said Sadler, the receivership's attorney. "The work is ongoing."

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