General Electric Capital Corp. temporarily defeated eight of nine fraud claims in a $1 billion lawsuit brought by creditors of hedge funds swindled by Tom Petters, the architect of the third-largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Paul Hyman in West Palm Beach, Fla., in a 60-page opinion on Friday, concluded that the creditors made an adequate claim only for civil conspiracy to commit fraud. On the eight others, for negligence and various forms of fraud, Hyman said the allegations in the complaint were insufficient.
The surviving claim "gives us the biggest damage model," Michael Budwick, an attorney for the creditors, said Monday in a phone interview. Budwick, of Meland Russin & Budwick in Miami, said he was pleased with the ruling. "GECC's conduct clearly shows that it joined in the multimillion-dollar Petters Ponzi scheme," he said.
The creditors were seeking $1 billion in damages for each of the nine claims. They contend in the suit, begun in September 2012, that the finance unit of Fairfield, Conn.-based General Electric Co. kept quiet after discovering the fraud to give Petters time to repay a $45 million loan.
Palm Beach Finance Partners LP and Palm Beach Finance II LP were forced to liquidate after unwittingly investing in the Petters scheme. The funds confirmed liquidating Chapter 11 plans in October 2010, creating a trust that filed the lawsuit last year.
Hyman is giving creditors an opportunity to revise the complaint to determine if all nine claims pass muster, and in a procedure seldom seen in bankruptcy cases, GECC and the creditors agreed that Hyman could hold a trial with a jury in bankruptcy court.
Hyman said the fundamental flaw in the complaint was the failure to show how GECC had a duty to warn the creditors. Likewise, Hyman said the fraud claims weren't supported by "a single false statement of material fact."
Near the end of his opinion, Hyman said GECC's knowledge came "through diligent inquiring that any other lender," including the creditors, could have made. Hyman said the creditors failed "to establish any general duty on the part of GECC 'to precipitate its own loss in order to protect lenders that were less diligent.' "
