Billionaire Rejected From Reviving $800 Million Lawsuit Against Citibank

A Florida billionaire’s bid to revive his $800 million lawsuit accusing Citigroup Inc. of fraudulently hiding its exposure to subprime and other toxic mortgages was rejected. Arthur Williams claimed that Citigroup and two of its officials, Charles Prince and Vikram Pandit, introduced him to hold on to shares in subprime mortgages that he otherwise would have sold. A 2^nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said Citigroup, Prince and Pandit were not liable to trusts and corporate entities overseen by Williams and his wife. Williams was the founder of what became Primerica Financial Services and had planned to sell his $17.6 million Citigroup share stake in 2007, but claimed to just have sold $1 million of it because the bank and its employees claimed the bank was in good shape. But the appeals court called the damages “too undeterminable and speculative” and claimed Williams could only hypothesize about the price of stocks at a given time. Since 2008, Citigroup lost $27.68 billion and underwent a series of federal bailouts. The decision was final.