Victory for Financial Advisor Accused of Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Fraud, & Theft
After an epic four plus year battle, Hermosa Beach Partner Theodore (“Ted”) Peters celebrated a full defense verdict in a California Superior Complex Court following a 17-day jury trial. The trial brought finality to a complicated fact pattern involving no less than six sets of defendants, 20 courtroom attorneys, and sweeping claims of fraud, deceit, concealment, theft, conspiracy, and breach of fiduciary duty. Our client, a financial advisor who provided advice to the plaintiffs about diversifying their substantial seven-figure portfolio and purchasing certain fixed annuity products to provide retirement income, was the central figure in the case. Plaintiffs claimed the advice was misleading and deceptive because the advisor allegedly failed to disclose certain facts about his relationship with the annuity company and an investment advisory firm among a host of other related entities also named in the case. Plaintiffs asserted that the defendants conspired and colluded with one another to effectively “steal” the plaintiffs’ retirement assets. Plaintiffs claimed economic losses of more than $13 million at trial.
During this trial Ted painstakingly and methodically walked the jury through mountains of evidence, dozens of hours of testimony, and handily negated plaintiffs’ outlandish claims. In the end, Ted convincingly demonstrated that his client committed not a single wrongful act.
On February 21, following weeks of trial and in less than four hours of deliberations, a jury of 12 rendered a full defense verdict on all claims. On February 28, the court decided the remaining equitable claims and, following the lead of the jury’s verdict, concluded that the remaining defendants were entitled to judgment in their favor in full. Our client was thrilled with the phenomenal outcome!
Ted Peters, the leading Partner on the case, litigates nationwide. He has vast experience in representing businesses in a wide variety of litigated matters including premises liability, product defect, insurance, unfair business practices, trade secrets, intellectual property, general and professional liability, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and personal injury disputes. Mr. Peters also has a wealth of experience in handling financial and professional services matters and represents securities institutions, financial service providers and their representatives and agents in contested matters before state and federal courts and arbitrations governed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and state regulators.
