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Dorsen, author of The Unexpected Scalia, among other books, brings readers a brave and informative narrative about ways the United States legal system failed to follow proper legal procedure in the case of SEC v. Michael Lauer and Lancer Management, LLC. The most impressive attribute of this book is the amount of humanity bestowed upon the central character, Michael Lauer. Lauer grew up a mixed ethnicity kid—Jewish and Russian Orthodox—in 1950s Poland. He was athletic, bold, and smart. After coming to the US at fifteen, he played center on the hockey team for City College of New York. Then he boxed for the New York Athletic Club. He drove a cab in NYC and trained as a Marine aviator. Eventually, he succeeded on Wall Street.
Lauer’s offshore hedge fund, Lancer Management Group, LLC, employed directors, administrators, brokers, auditors, and banks who modeled integrity and professionalism. Investors felt confident. Because Lancer invested in a ferry boat operator company with separate investors who were part of a real fraudulent fund, the FBI reacted and alerted the SEC. In the world of finance, criminal schemes arise, but the author reveals how Lauer rejected and refused to get involved in them. Dorsen further concludes that when the Miami SEC noticed Lauer and Lancer Management, a systemic, internal bias took hold. Assumptions that Lancer Management was involved in fraudulent schemes reached Judge Zloch’s court, and the judge then jumped to conclusions of guilt. This thought-provoking perspective on the events also addresses alleged DOJ, FBI, and SEC abuses of power, from serving a hasty search warrant to an overzealous preliminary injunction. Told with clarity and tension, Dorsen’s book reads like a thinking man’s legal thriller.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review