New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and his wife Brittany have reached a confidential settlement with La Jolla jewelry store owner Vahid Moradi, ending a lengthy dispute over the value of diamonds Moradi sold the wealthy couple.
In June, the star quarterback and his lawyer persuaded a jury that Moradi had grossly overpriced the diamonds and misled the Breeses about the investment value of that jewelry.
In November, the judge increased that jury award to $10.3 million, which includes Brees’ legal fees and costs, and interest on the judgement.
Court documents confirm Moradi appealed the jury verdict in October, but dropped his appeal on Tuesday.
Attorneys for both parties confirmed Thursday that a settlement has been reached, and the lawsuit will be dismissed. Terms of that agreement are confidential, and the court record contains no information about how much Moradi and his company, CJ Charles Jewelers, will pay the Breeses.
In response to questions from NBC 7, lawyers for both sides issued the following statement:
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“Drew and Brittany Brees and CJ Charles and Vahid Moradi have reached an amicable resolution of their disputes. The parties wish each other well.”
Jurors have reached a verdict in the lawsuit filed by NFL quarterback Drew Brees against a La Jolla jeweler that he said misrepresented the value of diamonds and defrauded him out of $6.7 million.
The civil lawsuit filed by Brees and his wife, Brittany Brees, in San Diego County Superior Court accuses Vahid Moradi of breach of oral contract, fraud by intentional misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty and fraud by concealment.
A jury ruled in the Breeses favor on all for actions Friday, and decided they would be awarded more than $6.1 million in damages.
“I think the jury saw Mr. Moradi for what he is, and that’s a con man," Brees's attorney Andrew Kim said. "[The jury] did find that he committed fraud both by affirmative misrepresentations and also concealing facts that were within his knowledge but that the Breeses couldn’t know, and that was all part of a scheme to do exactly what Mr. Moradi did, and that was to make an illicit $6 million profit when he wasn’t supposed to make any profit at all.”
Brees and Moradi met through a teammate Brees had when he was in college.
The two men had entered into 10 transactions since they first started discussing diamonds as investments in 2010.
Moradi's attorneys argued the diamonds were fairly priced and that Brees was aware of their arrangement.
