Guess? Inc. co-founder Georges Marciano must pay about $370 million to five former employees.
A jury determined that Marciano defamed the former employees and caused them emotional distress, a lawyer said Tuesday.
The Los Angeles Superior Court jury on Monday found Marciano liable to each of the five workers for about $69 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, according to R. Rex Parris, an attorney for ex-Marciano employees Miriam Choi and Camille Abat.
"This is one of the largest defamation verdicts ever handed down in Los Angeles County," Parris said. "This verdict shows that being rich does not mean you have the power to ruin the lives of other people on a whim or suspicion."
Parris said the judgment was entered against Marciano Tuesday and that it can now be carried out.
"We'll probably start seizing his Ferraris by the end of the week," Parris said.
Eric George, an attorney for Marciano, was not immediately available for comment, according to City News Service.
In addition to his involvement in Guess?, an apparel and accessory company, Marciano's business operations include investments in fine art, which he has bought and sold through various auction houses over the past 20 years.
In August 2007, Marciano brought a lawsuit against Joseph Fahs, an information technology employee. In February 2008, Marciano amended his complaint to incorporate four additional former employees: Choi, a Marciano business manager; Abat, a receptionist; Steven Chapnick and Elizabeth Tagle.
Marciano alleged that Fahs, Choi, Abat, Chapnick and Tagle embezzled money and stole property from him.
All five former employees filed separate cross-complaints against Marciano, whose original complaint against them was dismissed last Dec. 31.
In May, Judge Elizabeth Allen White found that Marciano was liable for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress against each cross- complainant, and that he had committed those acts with the malice, oppression and/or fraud necessary to justify an award of punitive damages.
White then set a jury trial for damages at the employees' request.
Jury Orders Guess? Co-Founder to Empty Pockets
Copyright Archive Sources