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Jailed Beverly Hills lawyer wins insurance fraud case
Saturday February 15, 2003
LOS ANGELES (AP) A Beverly Hills lawyer convicted of plotting
to sink his luxury yacht in order to collect $3.5 million in
insurance money won a $371,000 judgment against two insurance
companies that canceled his monthly disability payments because of
fraud allegations.
``This is the first fair trial I've had in federal court,'' Rex
K. DeGeorge said Friday after a jury returned their verdict.
The 66-year-old attorney was sentenced last year to 7 years in
federal prison for trying to sink a 76-foot yacht off the Italian
coast by cutting holes in the hull. The boat was only partially
submerged, and DeGeorge was later rescued by the Italian Coast
Guard. Prosecutors said DeGeorge, who had previously lost three
other yachts at sea, used a series of phony sales transactions to
drive up the boat's insurance value.
On Friday, a Los Angeles jury ruled that Equitable Life
Assurance Society and the Paul Revere Life Insurance Co. must pay
DeGeorge $371,000 in disability payments.
The two companies stopped paying DeGeorge his $8,200-a-month
disability payment in 1999, alleging he faked his ailments and was
continuing to work as a lawyer. DeGeorge filed the claims in 1990,
saying he was disabled because of a heart condition and brain
damage caused by an auto accident.
``We hope that this case sends a message to insurance companies
that no matter who the insured is, they must pay what they agreed
to pay or the jury will require it,'' DeGeorge's lawyer Peter
Morris said.
The jury also found DeGeorge remains disabled, forcing Equitable
to continue paying him $4,700 month for the rest of his life. Paul
Revere's coverage ended when Degeorge turned 65.
Thomas B. Ackland, who represented the two insurance companies
during the trial, said a decision to appeal has not yet been made.
Unless DeGeorge's conviction is overturned, he will have to
forfeit Friday's judgment. As part of his sentence, DeGeorge was
ordered to pay the government $2.8 million in restitution.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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