ADT awarded $112m in racketeering lawsuit

HOUSTON—Tyco/ADT acquiring Texas-based Broadview Security was not the only ADT news coming out of Texas this week. In other, unrelated news, ADT was awarded $112 million in a final judgment in a racketeering suit that dates back to 2006, according to AmericanLawyer.com.

The verdict is “among the top U.S. verdicts of 2009” according to information on the Web site of the law firm representing ADT, Ajamie LLC, which is based here.

AmericanLawyer.com reported that ADT sued a Mexican businessman and a Dallas company for violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). A jury awarded ADT $36 million in October. The final judgment, awarded on Jan. 20, included interest, bringing the total to $112 million.

ADT released this official statement about the case to Security Systems News: "This was an exceptionally long legal case dating back to 2006. With the favorable outcome on the claims brought by ADT Mexico, we can continue focusing on  our business of providing life safety and security to our valued customers in Mexico."

According to the report, ADT had some alarm dealers in Mexico, with whom it stopped doing business in 2002. Some of the dealers then hired Mexican businessman Jesus Henandez Alcocer and “assigned the equipment they allegedly owned to his affiliated company, Alert 24.”

ADT filed the lawsuit in 2006 saying that Alcocer and Alert 24 “conspired to authorize the filing of Mexican criminal complaints without any factual basis against current and formere ADT management and employees in an attempt to extort money from ADT."

Alert 24 filed a counterclaim, which was successful. The company claimed that ADT stole equipment that the dealers had assigned to Alert 24. The jury found in favor or Alert 24 and awarded the company $7.8 million in October, which in this week's final judgment increased to $9.2 million.

AmericanLawyer.com reports that Alcocer's attorney would appeal the $112m verdict and ADT's attorney would appeal the $9.2 million verdict.