Financial Services Litigation & Arbitration

Business Counseling

We counsel, investigate, and litigate on a wide range of financial services matters.

O’Mara & O’Callaghan has extensive experience in financial services matters, from investigating fraud and embezzlement to providing guidance regarding corporate governance and employment issues. We have a deep understanding of – and experience counseling on – the norms and regulations of the financial world.We have counseled clients regarding compliance, enforcement, and litigation solutions with a variety of regulatory agencies including the CFTC, FINRA, NFA, and the SEC. We regularly represent proprietary, forex, index, and futures trading companies and employees – as well as other financial services firms – on avoiding and resolving disputes, and have deep experience representing CME and CBOT traders.

Our transactional experience includes handling complex incorporations and drafting operating agreements for multi-tiered international corporations, as well as sale and buy-out agreements for businesses of all sizes.

We are often engaged when there is concern of fraud or abuse, and our aggressive and thorough investigations give clients tremendous peace of mind. Our combined years of daily involvement with criminal investigations at the State’s Attorney’s Office give us a high level of sophistication in this arena – and the ability to unravel even the most complex fraudulent activity.

Our attorneys also have completed substantial coursework in the LLM financial services program at Chicago-Kent College of Law, including coursework on market regulation, enforcement and litigation of securities and commodities law, mergers and acquisitions, and arbitration.

Recent Successes
  • Investigated and identified embezzlement by a director of a proprietary trading firm and subsequently recovered $450,000 in stolen funds and real estate. While our client initially suspected the director had stolen approximately $100,000 from the company, our investigation revealed the scope of the fraud to be much larger.
  • Within 24 hours of being retained, we conducted an on-site forensic investigation, obtained a signed confession from the embezzler, and located the stolen assets. Within days we initiated a civil suit and obtained injunctive relief to freeze the assets of the former director and family members to whom he had transferred stolen funds. He was subsequently arrested, charged with wire fraud, and sentenced to three years in prison.
Another O2 Long-Shot Victory

Our client, a Chicago-area physician, was swindled out of $500,000 by a serial financial predator. The Ponzi scheme was run by a man who claimed to be selling securities in a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund, but who used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle that included exotic travel, high-end hotels, and luxury cars.

We sued the man on behalf of our client and obtained a $500,000 judgment against him. We also provided key evidence to the Illinois Secretary of State Securities Department’s Enforcement Division and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office Special Prosecutions Bureau. The serial financial predator was arrested in the fall of 2016 on charges related to the securities scheme and is now awaiting trial.

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