United States

DLA Piper advised Artistic Milliners, a global denim manufacturer, in its acquisition of a majority stake in denim supplier Cone Denim from textile supplier Elevate Textiles. Cone Denim will continue to operate as a standalone portfolio company under Artistic Milliners. The new entity will seek to operate a global platform spanning both hemispheres and will be comprised of a combination of selected assets from each organization. Cone Denim will also now operate mills in Mexico, China, and the US. “We were excited to work with Artistic Milliners on this strategic matter, showcasing the breadth of our cross-border experience,” said deal lead Michael J. McGuinness, US-LatAm Practice Group Regional Co-Leader, Corporate M&A and Private Equity. “It’s not just the firm’s global reach, but it's cohesive service, that helps clients navigate complex deals with clarity.” "Working with DLA Piper has provided us with a comprehensive global perspective,” said Murtaza Ahmed, CEO of Artistic Milliners. “The firm's ability to integrate insights across multiple jurisdictions exemplifies the level of collaboration we seek as we expand our international operations.” In addition to McGuinness (New York), Of Counsel Violeta Libergott (US/Brazil) co-led DLA Piper’s cross-border and multi-practice team across the US, United Arab Emirates (UAE), China, and Mexico. The team also consisted of Partners Nick Klein, Elyssa Kutner, Brian Janovitz, Larissa Bifano, Amadeu Ribeiro (all US), Therese Abou-Zeid (UAE), Jorge Benejam (Mexico); Partner Tina Xia and Senior Legal and Tax Manager Peter Chen (both China); Head of Sovereign and LP Investment, MENA, Kurt Alfrey (UAE); Of Counsel Andy Eklund (US); Associates Regina Esparza (Mexico), Regine Lewis, and Michael Haggerson, and Syeda Kamal (all US). With more than 1,000 corporate lawyers globally, DLA Piper helps clients execute complex transactions seamlessly while supporting clients across all stages of development. The firm has been rated number one in global M&A volume for 15 consecutive years, according to Mergermarket, and ranked as number one in VC, PE and M&A in combined global deal volume according to PitchBook.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — An international bank based in Puerto Rico has been sued for fraud over an alleged scheme that attorneys say led to the loss of more than $90 million in deposits, affecting hundreds of clients in the U.S., Venezuela and elsewhere. One of the owners of Nodus International Bank, Juan Francisco Ramírez, was notified this week of the lawsuit filed Feb. 6 in a federal court in South Florida. Attorneys said Tuesday that they expect to notify the other co-owner, Tomás Niembro Concha, in upcoming days.   “You have depositors who have their life savings there, and depositors who have money for dialysis, and they cannot afford it because the money is gone,” said Marta Colomar García, an attorney with Miami-based Diaz Reus international law firm that filed the lawsuit on behalf of Driven, the Puerto Rico-based trustee overseeing the bank’s liquidation. Attorneys for Ramírez and Niembro, who is believed to be living in Spain, could not be immediately reached for comment. Niembro, of Venezuela, owned 60% of Nodus International Bank and served as its president, while Ramírez owned 40% and served as its board chairman, according to the lawsuit. Their wives are among the accused defendants. “They treated depositor funds at Nodus as their own personal piggy bank,” the lawsuit states of the two owners. In 2009, the bank obtained a license to start operating in Puerto Rico and began doing business a year later.   By February 2012, the island’s Office of the Commissioner of Final Institutions began investigating the bank and found violations to anti-money laundering regulations, among other things, according to the lawsuit. By October 2017, the office found “serious financial and managerial deficiencies,” and in March 2023, it presented Nodus with voluntary liquidation alternatives after receiving “multiple claims from depositors related to Nodus’ refusal to complete fund transfers requested by them in amounts totaling millions of dollars,” the lawsuit stated. In October 2023, Puerto Rico’s Office of the Commissioner of Final Institutions appointed a receiver and revoked the bank’s license. Driven, the trustee, has found that Nodus owes clients some $92 million and that more than 95% of its loan portfolio has no collateral. The lawsuit filed by attorneys for Driven focuses on $28.5 million of the roughly $92 million shortfall lost through two alleged schemes. In one of the alleged schemes, the two owners “grant themselves millions of dollars in personal loans,” according to the lawsuit. The average loan was about $14,000, with a borrower base of about 500 clients, the lawsuit stated, adding that while the supposed loans were repaid, $2.3 million remains outstanding for Ramírez and $341,000 for Niembro.   The lawsuit seeks a jury trial.

Law360(August 13, 2025, 6:47 PM EDT) -- In Mireya Cambero's lawsuit against her ex-husband Jose Fernando De Matos, her attorneys at Miami-based Diaz Reus LLP had to prove fraudulent transfers but avoid confusing a jury with voluminous, uninteresting business filings. The best way to do it, they decided, was to organize their evidence in an easily digestible flowchart. Cambero's suit, which was filed in 2015, alleged years of abuse by De Matos, and was amended several times to include claims that De Matos transferred property and commercial assets held in his and Cambero's names to family, friends and other corporate entities, some of which were in South America. After a seven-day trial and roughly three hours of deliberation on July 15, the jury awarded Cambero $14.5 million in punitive and compensatory damages. Gary Davidson of Diaz Reus, representing Cambero, entered the case in 2022 and obtained paperwork showing that a commercial property in Coral Gables had been transferred to an individual not connected to his client. Co-counsel Evan Stroman and Ibrahim Amir, also with Diaz Reus, got involved in the case in 2025 and 2024, respectively. The arduous process of tracing the transferred assets produced a large collection of what Cambero's attorneys described as dull business records, such as quitclaim deeds and corporate filings. Their flowchart stitched them all together in an easy-to-follow format. "In every piece of litigation, there's a general challenge of how much detail you provide to the jury, and you always want to restrain yourself from providing too much," Davidson told Law360. "But from an evidentiary and appellate perspective, you got to have your record solid when it goes up to the court of appeal. Particularly in a fraudulent transfer case that spans many, many years, you've got to get it all in, and there's no easy way to do that, unfortunately." In the late 1980s, Cambero worked at a laundromat and sold purses for about a decade before buying a butcher shop in Venezuela, according to Stroman. Cambero met De Matos in 1996, and together they spent much of their time in Venezuela and Colombia, slowly growing a business empire. The couple moved to the U.S. in 2009 and began buying real estate during the Great Recession, acquiring at least 35 properties. It was "a modern-day effort that you wouldn't have seen 50 years ago in Venezuela," Stroman told Law360. At the height of their business operations, Davidson said, the couple had staffing, a separate distribution company for their butcher shop and significant income. Cambero had 50% ownership on paper and was also involved in the day-to-day operations, according to Davidson. The couple's relationship was marked with horrific instances of domestic violence, including a 2011 rape, according to the suit. In 2013, the couple divorced. Running up against the statute of limitations on claims of assault and battery, Cambero filed her lawsuit against De Matos in Miami-Dade County state civil court in 2015, according to her attorneys. Later that year, according to Stroman, De Matos began the process of transferring commercial assets and properties held in his and his ex-wife's names to business associates and his daughter from a previous marriage. The divestiture of assets accelerated after a state court judge granted Cambero permission to seek punitive damages against De Matos in 2016, giving her legal team the ability to obtain financial data such as tax returns for the purposes of proving her case, according to Stroman. When Davidson, Stroman and Amir became involved in Cambero's lawsuit, they learned more about the corporate structure of the assets through a set of questions served on her ex-husband. Maria De Matos, his daughter from a previous marriage, had created a separate business entity in Florida that she used to transfer ownership of the assets, Amir told Law360. To avoid confusing a jury with the complex web of asset transfers, Cambero's legal team devised a visual aid in the form of a flowchart. Davidson arranged the corporate information, while Amir organized the flowchart's data to show ownership of the assets at the time Cambero's lawsuit was filed, when they were transferred and their monetary value. "You confuse, you lose," Stroman said. One of the more powerful moments at trial, Stroman said, was when De Matos clarified some aspects of a corporate chart presented to him on the stand, effectively admitting that he transferred assets to a business associate based in South America. Stroman described it as a "reverse Perry Mason moment" in that it was the defendant who presented evidence to the jury in an unexpected and dramatic way, rather than the attorney. In showing why Cambero didn't divorce De Matos earlier despite years of abuse, Davidson said his team presented evidence of "trauma bonding," or the idea that the more frequently abuse occurs in a domestic relationship, the harder it is to leave. Photographic evidence of the 2011 rape, medical records and testimony of the responding police officer helped sway the jury in favor of Cambero, Davidson said. "The jury had to make a choice early on who they would believe," Davidson said. "It was clear to the jury that one side was telling a story that could not exist with the other side. There's no gray area there." According to court records, Maria De Matos and nine other defendants filed oppositions to the final judgment in late July. In their filings, the defendants argued that Cambero's counsel ignored a request to meet and confer before the final judgment was filed, and that Florida law doesn't allow prejudgment interest on unliquidated claims, as well as arguing that Maria De Matos was "completely exonerated by the jury" and shouldn't be included in the final judgment. Cambero's attorneys told Law360 on Wednesday that their client believes the post-trial motions lack merit and her responses will be filed shortly with the court. Counsel for the defendants did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment on Tuesday. Cambero is represented by Evan Stroman, Gary Davidson and Ibrahim Amir of Diaz Reus LLP. De Matos is represented by Gustavo J. García-Montes of Gustavo J. García-Montes PA. Maria Fernanda De Matos, Proyecto La Puerta CA, Mundo Carne Inc., Colonnade 101 SE Inc., Colonnade 115 SW Inc., Colonnade 116 SE Inc., Colonnade 110 SW Inc., Colonnade 318 SW Inc., Alejandro Akle and 12755 SW LLC are represented by Manuel Arthur Mesa of Mesa LLP. The case is Mireya Cristina Cambero Cordero v. Jose Fernando De Matos Rebolledo, case number 2015-005641-CA-01, in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court of Florida.  

Díaz Reus Bolsters Its Brazil Practice with the Addition of Martha Hager September 16, 2025 Diaz Reus International Law Firm is delighted to announce that Martha Araujo Hager, an international lawyer licensed to practice in Florida, New York and Brazil, has joined its headquarters as Of Counsel. Ms. Araujo Hager comments: "I am proud to join a leading international law firm with a reputation for excellence in providing the best solutions to clients worldwide. The firm has an incredible team of attorneys and staff with expertise in various areas of the law. I will be contributing to the white collar, sanctions and international law practice of the firm, building on my previous experience as a former Brazilian prosecutor and for handling cases of fraud, corruption and money laundering in global organizations." "Martha’s 30 years of experience in white collar, fraud and corruption, in Brazil as a civil and criminal state prosecutor and in the US at the United Nations; the World Bank Group; and the International Monetary Fund, are a great fit for the firm and offer a significant benefit to our clients as we help them navigate thorny cross-border challenges. She is a key part of our growth strategy, as we are currently seeing many sanctions and money laundering cases between Brazil and the USA, said Michael Diaz Jr., Diaz Reus Global Managing Partner. In Brazil, Martha successfully tried over 30 cases before the jury in addition to trying civil and criminal cases through the traditional Brazilian system of bench trials. In the U.S., Martha’s practice focuses on white collar cases often involving multiple international jurisdictions and advises clients in parallel U.S. and Brazilian proceedings. Her law firm experience in the U.S. includes international arbitration and litigation; applications for assistance to foreign and international tribunals and to litigants under 28 U.S. Code § 1782; conducting legal research, drafting Answers, Complaints, motions and memoranda, discovery requests and responses. She has deep experience handling evidentiary hearings, meditations, arbitrations, including debriefings and negotiations with government officials including, the Department of Justice and its various agencies (FBI, Secret Service, etc.). Diaz Reus International Law Firm operates on five continents, across 40 offices in key business centers, offering a global practice centered around national and international parallel proceedings and business transactions. The firm, its founders, and key partners are world-renowned board-certified experts in International Law, International Litigation & Arbitration, and Immigration & Nationality Law. We are recognized as a Top 100 global law firm by Global Investigations Review (GIR) in sensitive criminal matters involving government and foreign corruption investigations, including money laundering, OFAC & trade sanctions, Foreign Sovereign Immunity (FSIA) disputes, and global asset recovery matters. The firm is also globally recognized by Legal500, Chambers & Partners, Leaders League, Law360, Latinvex and many more. diazreus.com