Three former Dewey & LeBoeuf executives are asking a federal judge in Iowa to reconsider their request to put a civil suit by Aviva Life and Annuity Company on hold until a criminal case pending against them in New York is resolved, American Lawyer reported today. In its suit filed in 2012, Aviva claims that it lost 45 percent of its $35 million investment in the now-defunct firm's 2010 bond offering "as a result of false and misleading statements" by former Dewey chairman Steven Davis, former executive director Stephen DiCarmine and former chief financial officer Joel Sanders. All three men are currently facing criminal charges in their roles leading up to Dewey’s bankruptcy in May 2012. They are accused of lying to auditors, investors, creditors and colleagues for four years about the financial condition of the firm.
The defendants originally filed a motion to dismiss Aviva’s suit in 2013, arguing that the insurer had no standing in the case because it sold off its securities to Sea Port Group Securities for $19.2 million in the same month that Dewey went under. U.S. District Court Judge James Gritzer denied their motion in May.
