Feds Sue Cendant Exec For $3.3 Billion

HARTFORD (CN) - Federal prosecutors sued former Cendant Chairman Walter Forbes, and his family, attorney and accountant for $3.3 billion in restitution, claiming the attorney and accountant helped the now-incarcerated executive fraudulently transfer money after his accounting frauds were discovered.

"Now that the United States Supreme Court has denied Mr. Forbes' petition for Certiorari, the United States and Cendant seek to enforce the $3.275 Restitution Order imposed by this Court on January 17, 2007 against Defendant Walter A. Forbes for his role in the accounting fraud at Cendant, the disclosure of which triggered a $14 billion one-day drop in the value of Cendant's outstanding shares," the complaint states. "Among other forms of relief, this complaint seeks to set aside the numerous fraudulent transfers, starting immediately after the accounting scandal, made by Mr. Forbes to his wife, daughters, trusts and a wholly owned business entity exceeding $45 million. Plaintiff Cendant also seeks a money judgment against Mr. Forbes' long-time personal attorney, Defendant Robert T. Tucker, and the accounting firm of Buck Sturmer & Co. P.C. for their roles in assisting Mr. Forbes in the creation of, and the fraudulent transfer of assets into, the Forbes Family Trust."

Cendant, now known as the Avis-Budget Group, is a plaintiff. Forbes is in federal prison at Allenwood, Pa. Tucker, of Rye, N.Y., has been Forbes' personal attorney, and estate planner, since the 1980s. Buck Sturmer operate out of Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Forbes was CEO of CUC International, and its predecessor, and became Chairman of the Board of Cendant when CUC merged with HFS to form that company in 1997. Forbes had fraudulently inflated CUC's income since 1988; Cendant discovered the frauds in 1998, triggering a 46 percent drop in the share price in a single day.

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