Roberto Masud, 66, a former Miami attorney and former founder and CEO of Masud and Co. P.C., a Boston-based international business and securities law firm, has been forthwith suspended from appearing or practicing before the Securities and Exchange Commission following his disbarment in Florida in November 2024 and in Massachusetts in March 2025. The SEC’s suspension order, issued May 11, 2026, is automatic under Rule 102(e)(2) of the Commission’s Rules of Practice, which mandates immediate suspension of any attorney who has been disbarred by a state or federal court. The underlying misconduct that led to Masud’s disbarment involved his role as escrow agent in a $864,000 transaction in which Associated Pharmacies Inc. deposited funds into Masud’s trust account on March 5, 2021. The money was gone within three days. A 123-page referee’s report by Second Circuit Judge Tiffany Baker-Carper found by clear and convincing evidence that Masud had intentionally misappropriated the funds for himself and his accomplices, deliberately never signed the escrow agreement to create plausible deniability, and engaged in a pattern of conduct the referee called “the definition of dishonest, fraudulent, and deceptive.” The Florida Supreme Court disbarred Masud on November 27, 2024 with leave to reapply after 10 years. Massachusetts followed with reciprocal disbarment on March 20, 2025.
API Sent $864,000 Into Masud’s Trust Account for a PPE Deal. Three Days Later It Was Gone
Associated Pharmacies Inc. (API), an Alabama-based pharmaceutical company, entered into an agreement to purchase personal protective equipment from Indian manufacturer Jindal Paddings Pvt Ltd in early 2021. The transaction required an escrow agent, and API selected Masud, a Florida Bar member since 1989 who described himself as having served as a neutral third-party escrow agent hundreds of times. On March 5, 2021, API wired $864,000 into Masud’s trust account. By March 8, 2021, the funds were gone.
Masud’s defense, ultimately rejected by the referee and the Florida Supreme Court, was that he had never signed the API escrow agreement and therefore did not know he was acting as API’s agent. The referee found this claim a deliberate strategy: Masud had intentionally refrained from signing the agreement to give himself plausible deniability while still controlling the funds. In fact, at the same time as the API transaction, Masud was also acting as escrow agent for a separate deal involving his longtime client James Pomeroy and Pomeroy’s Phoenix Holding Company, which had entered into a December 2020 agreement with Tourbillon Advisory Incorporated involving $510,500.
Masud Directed API’s Funds to Pomeroy’s Accomplice Despite Having No Authority to Do So
Pomeroy and his associate Cain McKnight told Masud that the API wire of $864,000 represented the proceeds of a separate transaction owed to Phoenix Holding. McKnight then directed Masud by phone and email to distribute the funds: $510,000 toward a standby letter of credit, $100,000 to be held per Pomeroy’s instructions, and $254,000 to be transferred to McKnight’s personal Chase account. Masud obeyed these instructions despite McKnight having no official authority over any of the three entities involved in the API transaction. The referee found that Masud sent $254,000 to McKnight’s account and directed the remainder through transactions consistent with what API’s own civil counsel later described as money laundering.
When API’s deal collapsed in June 2021 and the company demanded its money back, Masud did not have it. API’s civil suit counsel Jeffrey Schneider told the referee: “I am a Ponzi scheme lawyer, a fraud lawyer. We found a lot of circuitous transactions that to me were in the nature of money laundering transactions.” The referee’s report noted that while the Florida Bar was not seeking to prove money laundering, the evidence “certainly smells like one did.” To date, API has not recovered its $864,000.
Masud Agreed to a Three-Year Suspension in 2023 Then the Florida Supreme Court Rejected It
In February 2023, Masud admitted to misappropriating the $864,000 and agreed to a three-year suspension as part of a settlement accepted by Judge Baker-Carper. The Florida Supreme Court rejected that settlement and sent the case back for another disciplinary hearing. In her amended 123-page referee’s report issued September 3, 2024, Baker-Carper found by clear and convincing evidence that Masud had acted intentionally, not negligently, had deliberately avoided signing the API escrow agreement to create plausible deniability, and had deceived both API and Dana Zanville throughout the process. The referee recommended disbarment. The Florida Supreme Court agreed and disbarred Masud on November 27, 2024, with a 10-year bar before he may apply for reinstatement.
Massachusetts, where Masud had also been admitted since 1989, commenced reciprocal disciplinary proceedings. On March 20, 2025, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court disbarred Masud in a reciprocal proceeding. Masud waived his right to a hearing and assented to the disbarment order. The SEC’s forthwith suspension, issued May 11, 2026, is the automatic consequence of those state disbarments under Rule 102(e)(2), which does not require any additional SEC investigation or proceeding beyond confirming the underlying disbarment.
The SEC’s Action Reflects Masud’s Securities Law Practice and Ties to Persons with Fraud Histories
The SEC’s forthwith suspension order notes two additional facts beyond the disbarment itself: that Masud advertised his legal practice as involving securities laws, and that he represented and engaged in business relationships with persons and entities with a history of improper conduct, including securities fraud. These facts are recorded in the order not as separate violations but as context for why the Commission’s suspension of a disbarred attorney carries particular significance in this instance. Masud’s firm, Masud and Co., represented multinational corporations, foreign governments, and financial institutions in international business transactions. The securities law practice and the pattern of client relationships involving improper conduct made his appearance before the SEC a matter of specific concern beyond the automatic operation of Rule 102(e)(2).
Conclusion
Roberto Masud built a career representing clients in international business and securities transactions across two decades and two states. The $864,000 that passed through his trust account in March 2021 and disappeared within three days is the event that unraveled it. A Florida Supreme Court emergency suspension in 2022, a rejected settlement in 2023, a 123-page referee’s report in 2024, disbarment in Florida in November 2024, disbarment in Massachusetts in March 2025, and now suspension from the SEC in May 2026. The money has not been returned. API has not recovered its funds. And Masud cannot reapply to the Florida Bar until 2034.
