Update: Lawyers sued by PGA Tour golfer Dustin Johnson struck back Monday with a court filing that accused the professional linksman of maligning them in a lawsuit that should have been focused on their former law partner — Johnson's longtime friend and adviser.
Mark Wittstadt and Gerard Wittstadt filed court papers asking a judge to dismiss the lawsuit against them that was filed in federal court in Atlanta, noting they, like Johnson, are victims of their former partner Nathan Hardwick. In a separate lawsuit in Fulton County, the Wittstadts have accused Hardwick of embezzling $30 million from Morris Hardwick Schneider’s accounts to cover his gambling and real-estate losses and to pay for private jets.
In the Monday filing, the Wittstadts accused Johnson of a “shotgun” filing — long on accusation, short on facts of their wrongdoing — last week that sought to reclaim $3 million that Johnson said he invested with the firm in August. They noted Johnson loaned the $3 million to an account identified by Hardwick without any communication with them and without reviewing any financial documents obligating them or the firm to make any payments to him.
“Johnson says he relied ‘to his detriment’ on Hardwick’s misrepresentations,” the Wittstadts said in Monday’s filing. “Everything else asserted by Johnson consists either of patently false and irrelevant ‘facts,’ or completely unsupported, inactionable, conclusory statements.”
The firm is now Morris Schneider Wittstadt.
The Wittstadts also denied threatening to expose confidential information about Johnson if he sued them, as Johnson charges in his lawsuit.
Original Report: PGA Tour golfer Dustin Johnson has accused two top partners and a former managing partner of a top real-estate law firm of stealing more than $3 million from him in an extortion scheme.
In a lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Atlanta, Johnson said the title law firm of Morris Hardwick Schneider, the firm’s former managing partner, Nathan Hardwick, the firm’s current managing partner, Mark Wittstadt, and Gerard Wittstadt, used their positions as Johnson’s “trusted advisers” to embezzle money he had invested with the metro Atlanta firm to cover shortages in the firm’s accounts created by Hardwick himself, who has since resigned from the firm.
In a separate lawsuit in Fulton County, Hardwick is accused of embezzling at least $30 million from the firm’s own accounts and the firm’s trust accounts to cover his gambling losses and real-estate investment losses and to pay for private jets, according to Housingwire.com, which reports on real-estate issues.
The firm now is known as Morris Schneider Wittstadt. Hardwick resigned as managing partner from it and its title company in August after problems were discovered with the escrow accounts. In the federal lawsuit, Johnson describes Hardwick as a trusted adviser and confidante who had approached him with “a really good investment” in which, if he loaned the law firm $3 million in August it would pay him $4 million over 30 months.
Instead, the lawsuit contends, the three lawyers entered into a conspiracy to misappropriate the money under false pretenses, to finance the firm’s operations and to “cover up the fact that they and the firm had misappropriated and mismanaged client assets.”
Johnson most recently made the news in September when he and his fiance model Paulina Gretzky, daughter of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, announced she was pregnant. The two have been engaged for two years.
In July, Johnson announced a break from the PGA tour to “seek professional help for personal challenges.” Golf.com reported he failed three drug tests and was suspended two years ago.
According to the lawsuit, Hardwick said the law firm and he and the Wittstadts would guarantee the loan as an added inducement. But Hardwick concealed the fact that he had misappropriated money, and the Wittstadts knew Hardwick was going to try to replenish their losses by getting as much money as possible from Johnson, according to the lawsuit.
Johnson relied on Hardwick’s assurances that financial documents had been forwarded to his financial adviser. When the story about Hardwick’s alleged embezzlement broke in August, Johnson said he was assured that his investment was OK, but he sued after not receiving monthly payments in September and October.
“Mr. Johnson’s lawyers placed their interests before his and fraudulently induced him to give them his hard earned money to pay for their firm’s day-to-day operations,” according to the lawsuit. “Mr. Johnson is stunned that the men in whom he entrusted his career have so callously ignored his interests. Mr. Johnson’s lawyers stole his money.”
The lawsuit states that Hardwick “played a particularly unique and significant role of trust and confidence” in Johnson’s life. It called the lawyer a primary advisor on his golfing career.
Hardwick was also an officer in Johnson’s professional corporation, and was listed on Johnson’s personal website as a member of “Dustin’s Team” as Johnson’s “attorney/counselor,” according to Housingwire.com
Hardwick contends he is not guilty of “any improper, illegal or unethical conduct,” and said that he believes all of the money he received was “properly distributed to him as his share of the profits of the firm,” according to Housingwire.com.
The lawsuit contends the Wittstadts “threatened to disclose private and confidential information about Johnson, which was learned by them in the course of their representation of him as his attorneys, should he take any further action to seek repayment of the money.”
They also threatened to entangle him in litigation for years and contended they were not his attorneys, the lawsuit said.
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