INSURANCENEWS – Lawyers Paid To Persuade Miss. Attorney General Not To Indict State Farm

Lawyers Paid To Persuade Miss. Attorney General Not To Indict State Farm

A prominent lawyer embroiled in a judicial bribery case paid two associates $500,000 to persuade Mississippi”s attorney general not to file criminal charges against an insurance company, court records said.

Plaintiffs lawyer Richard (Dickie) Scruggs, who sued State Farm Fire and Casualty Cos. soon after hurricane Katrina in 2005, was afraid the company “was not going to settle the civil cases”” if the attorney general”s office filed criminal charges, said an FBI report filed Monday in the bribery case.

Attorney General Jim Hood said Wednesday he would not have met with the men if he had known they were paid to persuade him not to file charges.

“If I knew they were getting paid that much I would have told them to get out of the office because it just didn”t smell right,”” Hood said.

Insurance News Net
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