A Blank Rome team secured a significant victory on behalf of Michael Mortimer, former senior vice president of accounting at Brixmor Property Group Inc. (“Brixmor”), when the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York voluntarily dropped criminal charges against him.
Mortimer was accused of fraud for taking part in fraudulent accounting tactics. In 2019, Mortimer settled civil claims with the Securities and Exchange Commission and pleaded guilty to securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud, but paid no monetary penalties and cooperated with federal prosecutors in their investigation. On April 1, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted the prosecutors’ motion for an order of nolle prosequi. The motion was unusual because prosecutors rarely admit that a case is no longer worth pursuing. The prosecutors said in a March 31 letter that “additional information”—along with conversations with Mortimer and other defendants, Brixmor employees, and forensic accountants—convinced them that they “cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that the accounting adjustments at issue were part of a fraudulent scheme.
For more information, please read:
- Ex-Brixmor Executives Win Rare Dismissal of U.S. Fraud Case (Bloomberg, April 1, 2021)
- Prosecutors Drop Accounting Fraud Case Against Former Brixmor Executives (The Wall Street Journal, April 2, 2021)
- Feds Drop Securities Fraud Case Against Ex-Brixmor Chiefs (Law360, April 1, 2021)
- U.S. prosecutors drop accounting fraud case against ex-Brixmor executives (Reuters, April 1, 2021)
- Fraud Case Against Brixmor Execs Dropped (Bisnow, April 2, 2021)
The Blank Rome team was led by Jerry D. Bernstein and also included Nicholas R. Tambone.
