Scheme victims win $2.5M

SARASOTA — The court-appointed receiver in the Arthur Nadel Ponzi scheme reached a $2.5 million settlement agreement with Shoreline Trading Group LLC, the New York firm that provided brokerage services to the financier.

The federal court that oversees the receivership case, an effort to recoup the $168 million Nadel's victims lost in the scam, must still approve the agreement. Nadel, a onetime respected money manager in Sarasota, is currently serving a 14-year prison sentence; he pleaded guilty to 15 federal fraud charges in February 2010.

Shoreline Trading was alleged to have introduced local investors and some financial services firms, including Goldman Sachs, to Nadel. The firm earned fees for those introductions. But Tampa attorney Burt Wiand, the receiver in the case, said in a statement that Shoreline “may have failed to appropriately respond to certain 'red flags' that, if investigated, could have revealed fraud.”

Shoreline maintained that it acted appropriately, and Wiand, in the statement, said the firm has cooperated and “displayed a good-faith willingness to resolve these matters amicably.” Wiand said the settlement “represents a very significant benefit for the receivership estate and defrauded investors.”