A jury has ordered Dan Harkey to pay investors $10 million after his Aliso Viejo-based company, Point Center Financial Inc., stopped paying out, according to the Orange County Register.
It took a jury 39 minutes of deliberation on Friday to award Harkey's investors $9 million in damages. On Monday, jurors returned to assign punitive damages totaling another $1 million.
Harkey, the husband of South County state Assemblywoman Diane Harkey, was accused of running a Ponzi-style investment scheme involving elder financial abuse and slush funds. His investors asked the jury for $43 million.
Diane Harkey was dropped from most of the charges, except one involving the transfer of their Dana Point home. She is running for a spot on the state Board of Equalization next election.
Harkey's defense attorney said he would ask the judge to throw out the verdict Tuesday.
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