Jennifer Ecklund Scores $65M Verdict Against Life Partners CEO & GC

© 2017 The Texas Lawbook.By Mark Curriden (June 22) – The long and sordid legal drama known as Life Partners took another step toward finality last week when a Fort Worth jury ruled that the company’s former chief executive officer and its general counsel committed fraud and breached their fiduciary duties to investors. For more than two years, Thompson & Knight partner Jennifer Ecklund has fought to get money back for investors who claim they were bilked for hundreds of millions of dollars in the massive life insurance settlement fraud scheme allegedly perpetrated by Life Partners executives. Life Partners, which was a publicly traded company, acted as a broker by purchasing life insurance policies from terminally ill patients for a discounted price and then sold a stake in those policies to investors who would pay the premiums until the policyholder died. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Life Partners of intentionally and fraudulently underestimating the life expectancy of the individuals when it sold the policies to investors. The SEC called it one of the largest corporate frauds in Texas history. On June 13, Ecklund’s tedious work paid off when a federal jury in Fort Worth ordered Brian Pardo, the…