Firm Files Claim on Behalf of Major League Baseball Player
February 27, 2013: The law offices of Rabin Kammerer Johnson and Aldo Beltrano, P.A. are currently representing former major league pitcher Jose Contreras in a lawsuit against his former financial advisers Quantum Family Office Group, LLC (“Quantum”), Juan Carlos Collar and Anthony Fernandez. Formerly a member of the Cuban national baseball team, Contreras defected to the United States in 2002 and has since played for the Yankees, White Sox (where he won the World Series), Rockies and Phillies.
The lawsuit, filed in the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in and for Miami-Dade County, Case Number: 13-05585-CA-40, alleges that the Defendants operated a Spanish-speaking investment advisory firm in Miami that specialized in handling the accounts of Latin American baseball players.
The suit further alleged that Contreras, who has no formal background or training in investing and who speaks very little English, hired the Defendants to manage all of his financial affairs, including making investment decisions, receiving his business-related mail, and even balancing his checkbook.
The Defendants abused that trust, the lawsuit claims, by investing approximately $2.3 million of Contreras’s money into a failed real estate development in which the Defendants, through intermediaries, held an undisclosed interest and from which they personally stood to benefit.
The suit alleges that Contreras was unaware of the conflicts of interest until he fired Defendants for unrelated reasons, and new advisors sorted out the details of his investments.
The suit claims that Quantum, Collar and Fernandez violated their fiduciary duties and fraudulently induced Contreras to invest in Sunset Trails and Pioneer Nova and seeks damages of $2,335,000, plus costs and interest.
The case has been assigned to Judge John Thornton in the Complex Litigation Division of the Court. Trial is set to take place in December 2014.
