Richard B. Simring is not someone you would expect to be charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering in a multi-million dollar scam.
Simring was a rising legal star and a well respected leader in his community.
The son of an attorney, Simring was valedictorian at Hollywood Hills High School in Florida, a magna cum laud graduate of Princeton University in 1988 and a 1991 summa cum laud graduate of George Washington University Law School.
Following law school, Simring served as law clerk for Rosemary Barkett, the former Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court. He then developed a successful legal practice in the areas of insurance, banking, and securities, specializing in complex business litigation and winning multi-million dollar verdicts. He represented banks, insurance companies, and financial institutions in reinsurance and insurance disputes, bad faith claims, state and federal RICO actions, securities class actions and broker/dealer arbitrations. He became a partner in the prestigious law firm Stroock, Stroock & Lavan and then in the law firm Jorden Burt.
Simring actively used his success to benefit others. He was a prominent figure at Miami fundraising events; charities, schools, and professional organizations were proud to have Richard B. Simring on their side.
He served as Chairman of the Board of Voices for Children Foundation, Inc., a Miami charity that raises money to advocate on behalf of abused and neglected children. He often spoke to legal and community groups about representing abused children in court. He contributed to the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind, and he served on the board of directors for Educate Tomorrow, an international charity that works to make education an attainable goal for the disadvantaged in Miami and throughout the world, with particular efforts in the impoverished African nation of Niger. He took an active part in Princeton alumni organizations. He donated money to his law school and served as a volunteer on its advisory board of directors.
Then he met Ed Okun.
According to the federal indictment, Simring first came into contact with Okun in November 2006, when Okun consulted him about legal issues involving the transfer of client funds in Okun’s 1031 Tax Group LLP (1031TG), a 1031 exchange qualified intermediary scam operated by Okun.
The indictment does not claim that Simring knew that 1031TG was a scam, or that Simring thought that Okun wanted anything other than legitimate legal help in making sure that his activities were lawful.
In fact, the indictment states that Simring conducted a legitmate and independent investigation of Okun’s activities with 1031TG and told Okun that they were illegal and needed to be halted until the exchange agreements were changed to allow the transfer of client funds and there were sufficient assets to cover client exchanges as they came due. Simring also told Okun that doing this would not rectify what Okun had done in the past, but only reduce the liklihood of criminal charges. Okun told Simring that he would follow his advice and change the exchange agreements and pay back the client exchange funds. Simring then told Okun that if he failed to do this, he would probably go to jail.
A month later, Okun hired Simring as the Chief Legal Officer for Okun Holdings. Simring was to be paid a salary of $850,000 and given a signing bonus of $100,000.
The indictment then alleges that in March 2007 Simring became aware that Okun had not followed any of his advice and was continuing to transfer millions of dollars from client exchange accounts into his personal bank account. Simring also learned that 1031TG was on the brink of insolvency. Simring then “confronted” Okun. Okun assured Simring that he was fixing the problems and was in the process of paying back 1031TG.
By April 2007, the financial situation of 1031TG had become dire and Okun’s scam was on the verge of coming part. 1031TG was no longer able to fund exchanges or pay back clients. And the people whose money Okun had taken were calling and demanding explanations.
This appears to be the point at which Simring went from being Okun’s attorney to his co-conspirator.
According to the indictment, Simring now participated with Okun and others in lying to clients, telling them that their funds were secure. Now also Simring apparently joined Okun in attempting a “holding action” against client inquiries and complaints, including making “lulling” payments to clients with money misappropriated from other clients.
In late April 2007, 1031TG’s CEO resigned and Okun appointed Simring as interim CEO. Okun then directed Simring to transfer approximately $8,000,000 in client funds into Okun’s personal bank accounts. According to the indictment, Simring complied.
Three days later, Simring resigned.
Why did Richard Simring become a co-conspirator of scammer Ed Okun? Why didn’t he walk away once he learned that Okun wasn’t following his advice and continuing to engage in criminal activity?
Perhaps it was the money — although it seems that Simring had no trouble making money legally.
Perhaps he was caught up in his client’s bunker mentality once it was clear that the enterprise was collapsing.
Or perhaps Simring fell under the spell of Okun’s swindler charm.
We will likely never know why Richard B. Simring, Esq., legal star and community leader, appears to have thrown away his career, his honor, and the respect of his colleages and community.
He may not know himself.
UPDATE:
Read Richard Simring Pleads Guilty — Set to Testify Against Ed Okun.
UPDATE:
Read Wachovia Sued for Millions in 1031 Exchange Fraud.
THE FOX REPORT 
An Open Letter about Comments Regarding Richard Simring
Our post on The Rise and Fall of Richard B. Simring, Esq. has gotten a lot of attention. It has also generated a lot of comments – some of which we’ve posted and some we haven’t — and we want to address these comments in this “open letter.”
We do not know Richard Simring. We wrote about him because we found his story compelling and perhaps instructive. A large part of what makes Simring’s story compelling is its moral ambiguity – before his current troubles stemming from his invovement in Ed Okun’s 1031 exchange scam, Simring had an admirable record of achievement and community service, yet he was indicted for (and pled guilty to) participating in a fraudulent scheme that stole millions of dollars from innocent people.
We encourage comments on Richard Simring, as on any other topic. But we have some minimal conditions that must be met for a comment to be posted.
Here are some guidelines:
Do not use all capital letters. No one wants to be shouted at, in life or in print. We do not want our comments section to degenerate into shouting, flaming, and name-calling.
Do not repeat the same opinion over and over. There is no reason to post a comment that simply repeats what you’ve said before.
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Tell us why you care, and tell us why we should care about your comment. If you have some inside information or some special insight, let us (and our readers) know. If you have personal knowledge of the situation or the people involved, share that will us, and be specific.
We hope this explains why some comments have been posted and some not, and that we’ve provided you with guidelines for future comments on our blog.
Thanks.
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Tagged 1031 exchange scams, 1031 Tax Group, 1031TG, comments, Ed Okun, Edward H. Okun, Edward Okun, fraud, Lara Coleman, Richard B. Simring, Richard Simring, scams, Simring