A Miami lawyer received $864,000 as an escrow agent. All the money was gone 3 days later

MIAMI — The state Supreme Court disbarred a Miami lawyer after a scathing 123-page referee’s report that accused the attorney of misappropriating client funds and, possibly, money laundering to cover theft.

The disbarment of Roberto Masud aka Robert Masud showed up on the Dec. 31 Florida Bar discipline report, but happened on Nov. 27 and makes permanent the emergency suspension Masud’s been under for the misappropriation since 2022. In reciprocal acts, Massachusetts put Masud under temporary suspension last March and started further disciplinary proceedings on Dec. 5.

In February 2023, Masud admitted to misappropriating $864,000 and agreed to a three-year suspension in a settlement agreement accepted by Second Circuit Judge Tiffany Baker-Carper. But, what Baker-Carper accepted, the state Supreme Court rejected and kicked back to Baker-Carper for another disciplinary hearing.

In her amended referee’s report, Baker-Carper said she “finds [Masud] knowingly and intentionally deceived (Associated Pharmacies Inc.) and Dana Zanville by serving as their escrow agent and intentionally failed to sign the escrow agreements in order to create plausible deniability, with the intent to benefit himself, (Cain) McKnight, and (James) Pomeroy in their collective international financing venture.”

Moving Money

In March 2020, with COVID-19 spreading across the globe like spilled water, API wanted to buy Duseberg medical gloves. Needing a registered agent, API chose Zanville, owner of Corporate Splash, and made her the importer of record. Zanville combined three orders from her company with API’s order into one order to have an order large enough to trigger production.

This deal required an escrow agent, something Masud, a member of the Florida Bar since 1989, had done hundreds of times previously. Baker-Carrper’s report said he described an escrow agent as a neutral third party for the sender and receiver of funds. He testified the duties include determining the origin of the funds received, talking to the principals involved, and going through related documents.

API chose Masud. But, Masud never signed the escrow documents for API.

Meanwhile, longtime Masud client James Pomeroy and his Phoenix Holding Company entered into a Dec. 28, 2020 agreement with Tourbillon Advisory Incorporated for which Masud also acted as escrow agent. That escrow agreement said Masud would receive $510,500 from Tourbillon, $10,000 of which was Masud’s fee. Masud would send the other $500,500 would be sent to the Bank of China.

Only something in writing signed by Tourbillon and Phoenix agents should’ve changed Masud’s actions.

“No reasonable attorney would conclude what happened next provided a good faith belief to change the agreement in the manners in which it was changed,” Baker-Carper wrote.

Mixing Money

API sent $864,000 into Masud’s trust account on Mar. 5, 2021. Though this was $313,500 more than the Phoenix-Tourbillon escrow amount, Masud claimed he legitimately thought this money was the Phoenix-Tourbillon money because Pomeroy and Pomeroy pal Cain McKnight told him their escrow would be funded with $864,000 from “a third party (API), as the proceeds of a separate transaction owed to one or more of the escrow principals.”

Via phone call and email, the referee’s report said, McKnight told Masud “out of $864,000 please use $510,000 for SBLC (Stand By Letter of Credit) and please keep 100,000 for use per instructions from Jim (Pomeroy) and ledger to my account the difference at Chase $254,000.”

Masud obeyed McKnight, though McKnight wasn’t part of Tourbillon, Phoenix or API, thus had no official authority to direct anybody to do anything.

“Thereafter, [Masud’s] bank records show a flurry of transfers over the coming days and weeks that plausibly suggest the Tourbillon Escrow Agreement was created to justify the movement of API’s funds,” Baker-Carper wrote.

The $864,000 was gone from Masud’s trust account in three days. Among the entities getting the money were Bullfinch Technologies, a Pomeroy company for whom Masud was an officer and BPM Global Investments, a company connected to Pomeroy and McKnight. $500,500 went to the Bank of China for Shanghai Medical and Texas Bahama Buddies, the two companies expected to issue a $12.5 million standby letter of credit to Pomeroy’s Phoenix company.

But, “when the Bank of China thereafter raised the price of the bank fees before the standby letter of credit would be issued, the Bank of China Transaction fell apart,” Baker-Carper wrote. “Phoenix did not get its standby letter of credit, no entity received any liquidity from Phoenix, and the original $500,500 was likely lost to the wind.”

While Masud used API’s money, API’s deal on the gloves fell apart. In June 2021, API requested its money back, money that escrow agent Masud should’ve had in his trust account but hadn’t had since Mar. 8, 2021.

“API’s civil suit counsel, Jeffrey Schneider, even opined ‘I am a Ponzi scheme lawyer, a fraud lawyer. We found a lot of circuitous transactions that to me were in the nature of money laundering transactions,’” Baker-Carper wrote.

“The Florida Bar was not seeking to prove a money laundering operation occurred, but it certainly smells like one did,” she continued. “Fundamentally, all of these actions and all of [Masud’s] muddled explanations lead (me) to find the Tourbillon Escrow Agreement was a sham created by [Masud], and most likely others, used to cover the misappropriation of API’s funds.”