Mixed Securities Verdict Reached in SEC Case Against Texas-Based Life Partners Holdings

Even though jurors rendered a mixed verdict in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s financial fraud lawsuit in Texas against Life Partners Holdings Inc. (LPHI), the company still may have ended up with the better outcome because the Texas life-insurance investments seller won some of the bigger claims. Still, Even as Life Partners is declaring the securities case outcome a victory, Andrew Ceresney, the Commission’s enforcement director, said the agency was pleased that the defendants were found liable for defrauding shareholders and submitting SEC filings that were false.

In U.S. District Court in Austin, Texas, the regulator had accused Life Partners of disclosure and accounting fraud that purportedly went on for years and were related to misleading marketing practices that allegedly occurred during the sale of life-insurance investments to customers. While jurors turned down the SEC’s primary insider trading and fraud allegations, they found the company and two of its executives liable in a securities fraud violation of a narrower scope involving revenue-recognition practices. Also, Life Partners’ CEO Brian D. Pardo and general counsel R. Scott Peden were were found liable for their role in the filing of false reports, and Pardo also was found to have falsely certified company filings.

Meantime, Life Partners continues to be the defendant in a number of Texas securities cases, including one involving 207 plaintiffs in Dallas who went through the company to invest in life policies. State regulators also have a separate Texas securities fraud lawsuit against Life Partners they are appealing in the wake of the decision by a state judge to turn down some of the main claims it made in 2012. The Texas State Securities Board has been looking into allegations that the life settlement provider misled investors of life insurance policies.

Please contact our Texas securities fraud law firm today. Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas, LTD LLP represents investors throughout the state.

Mixed Verdict in SEC Suit Against Life Partners, The Wall Street Journal, February 4, 2014

Jury delivers mixed verdict on U.S. SEC case against Life Partners, Reuters, February 4, 2014

Texas State Securities Board

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