University of Minnesota law professor Edward S. Adams is facing an astonishing criminal indictment over millions of missing funds from investors in his companies. The indictment says that Adams perpetrated an elaborate fraud on investors and fellow partners. According to the indictment, from 2006 to 2013, Edward S. Adams stole more than $4.38 million from investors and paid more than $2.54 million to his own law firm.
What is astonishing is that Adams is the second faculty member to face criminal charges on the Minnesota law faculty.
At the heart of the indictment is Adams’ involvement in Apollo Diamond, Inc.. Apollo’s founder was Adams’ father-in-law.
He allegedly embezzled funds and then, with the company facing insolvency, Adams allegedly had shareholders convert their Apollo stock into stock in a new company — Scio Diamond Technology Corp. He then allegedly siphoned off $2 million for his own accounts.
He is now facing eight counts of mail fraud and six counts of wire fraud.
In another interesting twist, Adams has sued the Star Tribune for defamation. With the indictment, it is not clear if Adams will now withdraw the lawsuit.
According to his bio, Adams had a stellar academic record and served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Minnesota:
Professor Edward S. Adams specializes in commercial, bankruptcy, and corporate law. He teaches bankruptcy, creditors remedies/secured transactions, commercial paper, corporations, and corporate finance. Professor Adams served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 1997 to 2000. He was honored with the Stanley V. Kinyon Teaching and Counseling Award in 1994 and 1996, and was a co-holder of the Julius E. Davis Chair in Law for 1999-2000.
Professor Adams earned his B.A. degree, magna cum laude, from Knox College, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. In the fall of 1984, he studied at the University of Freiburg in West Germany as a European Studies and NATO Conference Scholar. Professor Adams received his J.D. degree, cum laude, from the University of Chicago Law School in 1988. He was Managing Editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. Following graduation, Professor Adams clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He then practiced law with Latham & Watkins in Chicago. Before joining the University of Minnesota Law School faculty in 1992, Professor Adams was a Visiting Professor at Albany Law School of Union University. At Albany, he was the faculty founder of the Albany People’s Law Program, which provides free legal advice to members of the community. In 1997, Professor Adams graduated with an M.B.A. with highest honors from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.
This is not the first criminal controversy involving a Minnesota law professor this year.
After the Hennepin County attorney’s office dropped charges against Parisi, he sued the woman for defamation. The couple has property disputes over a condo and the woman accused him of sexual assault. The accuser has not been charged with filing a false police report. She however is facing a demand for $50,000.
These controversies are not helping a law school that has been reeling from dropping applications and budget shortfalls. Minnesota has long been one of the finest law schools even though it has dropped to 23 in the recent U.S. News and World Report rankings. It still has a widely respected faculty and highly competitive student body.
I notice this site didn’t pay homage to Lynne Stewart when she recently passed.
Dead and all, she still has more backbone that JT
“On another note, I find it odd to complain about Minnesota dropping to 23 in the rankings when GW dropped to 30. 🙂”
“Really JT? Didn’t a guy in Colorado just get caught in voter fraud? I think he said only democrats cheat. Then again the way the Republicans and Trump are doing, maybe its time to get out your pics from your vacations.”
Y’all are starting to, finally, catch on to this clown. He’s a suit that cares about status….
And btw, those vacations are critical academic seminars/conferences. It’s where the smart people get things done and unearth the truth (like JT hahaha).
Traveling to 5* hotels to speak to groups funded by billionaires… that’s very much in the public interest and related to fighting for civil liberties…
JT should try comedy instead
“I think JT needs to be hired as the new Dean of this dysfunctional law school. But, I don’t think he’ll ever leave DC.”
JT is but the other side of the coin to these schnooks….
Called a public interest professor but rarely discusses topics that actually affect the public at-large…. Is fine with collecting a six figure salary on his “noble profession” as thousands of students (probably some he’s had in class) languish in debt and an impotent job market…. The moral of the story is that you have to have your propaganda and supplemental narratives like JT (he’s a master at this).
This is sad. It makes you wonder what the inducement or temptation was for him to engage in fraud. Was it hubris or desperation or drug addiction? Who knows. But his fall is sad.
From his photo and CV summary, you’d assume that Professor Edward S. Adams was a highly intelligent and personable attorney who surely understood the need to never betray his clients.
But as Duncan said in Macbeth, Act I, scene 4, when discussing the Thane of Cawdor:
“There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face. He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust.”
Professor Adams deserves the same fate as the Thane of Cawdor.
Really JT? Didn’t a guy in Colorado just get caught in voter fraud? I think he said only democrats cheat. Then again the way the Republicans and Trump are doing, maybe its time to get out your pics from your vacations.
Did you know that Adams is on the market for deanships? He’s a finalist at SUNY Buffalo. http://www.ubspectrum.com/article/2014/09/law-school-dean-makau-mutua-resigns Maybe he and the previous dean will be cellmates.
Phi Delta Suckarse
So…
How many of ’em take the money and actually get away?
Wait. You probably wouldn’t know that, would you.
Never mind.
Guilty of one of the seven deadly sins….GREED. What a shame. This guy was, most likely, receiving a hefty salary, but that seems to be a catapult for some that can’t resist the obsession to want more and more. Obscene!
I’m trying to really figure out what’s going through his mind when his masquerade of deception is unraveling and the Star Tribune gets wind, and he is personally offended and decides to sue. And thinks the ponzi charade can continue if he just files a defamation suite?
Also, I so want to know if legal or illegal medication is envolved or if he just mentally went of the rails….
Suit.
“Involved” moral of my story, do coffee first,
No need to leave D.C.
J.T. I watched you yesterday testifying on behalf of
Judge gorsuch.
Hopefully one day you will be the recipient of similar testimony.
Nor surprising for the U of M and it’s highly political atmosphere.Morality and the law are relative.
An arrest does not a conviction make. On another note, I find it odd to complain about Minnesota dropping to 23 in the rankings when GW dropped to 30. 🙂
It all started in that fraternity he belonged to when he went to Knox College.
Too bad when he should have taken a job on Wall St. and done it all legally.
John Podesta went to Knox College.
Well … the faculty does have real, practical experience with the law – that’s always a plus.
The law is not an impersonal, abstraction here. Minnesota, where the faculty really, really understands the law!
He just confused the definition with the exigencies of the moments.
LAWYER, n. One skilled in circumvention of the law.
He’s facing “eight counts of mail fraud and six counts of wire fraud…..” I bet tax evasion charges will be tacked on soon, unless he reported that $2 million that he embezzled on his tax returns.
I think JT needs to be hired as the new Dean of this dysfunctional law school. But, I don’t think he’ll ever leave DC.
Bigger bright lights and an enviable lifestyle (e.g. recent trip to the South Pacific) combined with the
Big Bucks ile. the Billy Graham crossover bucks) would force his wife to file a cease and desist order
if the law school were to come calling.
JT is constantly traveling and staying in five-star hotels as a “public interest law” professor.
It’s quite the act, and no-way he believes ideas he proclaims as noble through words… look at the actions this coward takes.