The plaintiff sought a declaration that two life insurance policies had a cash surrender value exceeding $18 million and claimed damages for breach of contract and bad faith refusal to pay.
The insurer denied liability and counterclaimed, alleging the plaintiff participated in a fraudulent scheme with a senior company actuary to inflate policy values and withdraw funds far exceeding deposits.
After reviewing extensive accounting evidence and testimony, the court found the plaintiff’s evidence unreliable and accepted that the actuary had falsified documents and inflated values in exchange for bribes from the plaintiff.
The court concluded the plaintiff knowingly assisted a breach of fiduciary duty and committed civil fraud.
The policies were declared overdrawn and terminated, and the insurer was awarded damages equal to the misappropriated funds plus punitive damages.
