The HSBC Holdings Plc unit once known as Household International Inc. is liable for about $1.5 billion in damages to shareholders who a Chicago federal court jury found in 2009 were misled by the company and three executives, a plaintiffs’ attorney said, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Lawyer Michael J. Dowd told U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman at a hearing yesterday that an independent claims examiner reviewed and approved investor claims approaching that amount, for which the attorney seeks entry of a partial judgment. That $1.48 billion in allowed claims from about 10,000 stockholders may be augmented by pre-judgment interest in the 11-year-old lawsuit or wiped out by post-trial motions, Dowd said. Still more claims remain to be resolved, he said. Household stockholders sued the company in 2002, alleging the company and three executives made misleading statements about its mortgage lending practices. The lender had earlier agreed to pay $484 million in fines to settle claims lodged by more than a dozen states.
