In a case that draws some light into a murky financial world, a charity and a businessman who sued a Montreal law firm caught in a tangled web of lawsuits after a former partner allegedly orchestrated a multi-million Ponzi scheme lost their case after Quebec Superior Court held that the lawsuits were groundless.

The law firm, Kaufman Laramée LLP, faces several lawsuits stemming from a multi-million dollar fraud allegedly committed by Dany Perras, a Montreal lawyer who abruptly resigned from the roll in October 2011 after the Quebec legal society launched an investigation into the misappropriation of funds. Perras, who briefly practiced at Kaufman Laramée for six months in 2011, was barred from practicing for 10 years by the Quebec Bar in 2014. He was also ordered by the Barreau du Québec’s Disciplinary Council to return more than $3 million to clients. Perras has never been criminally charged.