Harthshorne, et al. v. Metlife Inc., et al.

Summary

A unanimous 12-member jury returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff Christine Ramirez, 75, following an 8-week trial during which her attorneys claimed MetLife and subsidiaries New England Life Insurance Co. and New England Securities looked the other way while brokers sold investors on a bogus fund called the Diversified Lending Group. Government regulators exposed DLG as a scam operation in 2009, and its founder Bruce Friedman later died in a French prison fighting extradition to the United States on related criminal charges.

Click here for more in-depth coverage via the CVN News Blog.

Outcome

The percentages of fault assigned by the jury:

MetLife: 20%
NELICO: 7.5%
NES/MetLife Securities: 7.5%
Tony Russon: 30%
Russon Financial: 30%
Scott Brandt: 5%

Phase 2 -
The jury has awarded Plaintiff Christine Ramirez a total of $15,360,000 in punitive damages.

-$10,000,000 MetLife
-$2,500,000 NES/MetLife Sec.
-$2,500,000 NELICO
-$360,000 Tony Russon