Precedent-Setting $168.8M Victory in Landmark Bank Failure Trial

We successfully represented the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in obtaining a federal jury verdict against three former officers of the failed bank IndyMac.

After 17 days of trial, the jury reached its verdict in four hours and 37 minutes of deliberations and ruled in the FDIC's favor on all counts, awarding the entire amount of damages sought at $168.8 million.  The court will determine the amount of interest to be awarded in further proceedings.

The lawsuit, filed in 2010, sought to recover damages from three former officers of IndyMac's Homebuilder Division.  The suit alleged that the executives were negligent and breached their fiduciary duties by approving homebuilder loans with questionable repayment sources in violation of bank policies, and issuing them to borrowers who were not creditworthy or were in financial distress.  During the 17-day jury trial, we successfully presented the essential details of 23 separate, complicated multimillion dollar development loans and persuaded the jury that the approval of those loans fell below the standard of care for safe and sound banking.