Defense attorney James Brosnahan (center, bald) and Maxxam chief Charles Hurwitz (behind Brosnahan) leave the Oakland federal courthouse Monday, which turned out to be the last day of the trial. Photo: John Geluardi.
This just in from Oakland: Parties in the
fraud suit against Charles Hurwitz
, former owner of the Pacific Lumber Company, have reached a settlement after one week of trial.
Journal
freelancer John Geluardi reports that former CDF employees Chris Maranto and Richard Wilson have agreed to drop their whistleblower suit against the Texas financier in exchange for $4 million. Originally, the two had sought damages of up to $750 million for allegedly defrauding the federal government during the Headwaters Forest deal.
We’ll have updates here as the day goes on, and this week’s
Journal
will feature a cover story looking back at the trial.
This article appears in The CASA.
It seems that no one will take hurwitz to task for his actions.
GREED WORKS! CRIME PAYS! EVERYBODY DOES IT!
Not at all surprising, but truly SICKENING!
Remember that Hurwitz believes in the Golden Rule, and he has proved it once again. As he told Pacific Lumber workers soon after seizing control of the company in 1986: "He who has the gold, rules."
After sucking some $3.75 billion out of Humboldt County (according to Humboldt Watersheds Council) Hurwitz buys his way out of trouble for a mere $4 million and slithers back to Houston. Let’s see, a billion is a thousand million, so $4 mil is slightly more than 1/10 of 1% of Hurwitz’s haul.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers were afraid they wouldn’t get a unanimous jury verdict, based on their jury watching. They were worried that the judge’s ruling barring evidence from the PL bankruptcy filings that showed Hurwitz exercised active control of PL would make it harder to prove their case.
According to two of the jurors interviewed on KMUD News, the jury was going strongly for the plaintiffs, especially after two very strong witnesses on Tuesday. The evidence of malfeasance was clear and convincing.
Even if one or two jurors sided with the defendants, that would not lose the case for the plaintiffs. A hung jury would simply mean a mistrial, followed by another trial. That happened in the Humboldt Pepper Spray Q-Tip case twice, followed by a victory the third time for the plaintiffs.
I’m disappointed that the plaintiffs didn’t have the courage and stamina to play their very strong hand to the end, and not settle on such weak terms. Of course that’s Monday morning quarterbacking.
I don’t know all of the circumstances, and maybe the plaintiffs’ legal team wasn’t willing to do it over, and was afraid of not getting paid. With this settlement the lawyers get their $1 million fees and costs paid promptly. If they had won a jury verdict awarding tens or hundreds of millions in damages, Hurwitz would certainly have appealed, and it would have been another two or three years before the appeal would be decided. In the meantime, no money from the defendants, and the defendants might get lucky at the appeals level and overturn the verdict.
In any event, it’s true that the great majority of civil suits end in a settlement, not a verdict. I just wish they had held out long enough for Hurwitz to have had to testify under oath in front of the jury and the public, which he was scheduled to do, and which has never happened before. And I wish they had demanded a richer settlement that was a more painful and embarassing for Hurwitz.