California Court Awards Woman $36 Million After Ex-Husband Killed Their 2 Kids In Insurance Fraud Scheme

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 19, 2022) — Litigation, P.C.’s client, whose ex-husband killed their two sons by intentionally driving them off a Port of Los Angeles wharf in 2015, has been awarded $36 million in a Los Angeles County Superior Court.

The judgment, entered on Oct. 11, calls for Eli F. Elmezayen, along with co-defendants Bassam Younan and David Lee Morgan, to pay Rabab Diab $6 million in compensatory damages and $30 million in punitive damages in the wrongful death and fraud conveyance case filed by Litigation, P.C.

The ruling comes more than seven years after Elmezayen killed 8-year-old Abdelkarim and 13-year-old Elhassan (and nearly killed Diab), and a year-and-a-half after U.S. District Judge John F. Walter sentenced Elmezayen to 212 years in federal prison.

“While it’s not likely the defendants have significant assets remaining in the United States, this judgment helps our client seek redress in Egypt where defendants may have fraudulently transferred their assets,” Litigation, P.C. lead counsel Zein Obagi, Jr. said of the ruling. “In addition, this result shows our continued committment to public interest plaintiffs, domestic violence victims like  Ms. Diab, and our willingness to go the distance for a righteous cause.”

On April 9, 2015, Elmezayen drove Diab and their sons — both of whom were autistic — to the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro and plunged their car more than 30 feet off a pier and into the ocean.

Unable to swim, Diab made her way out of the car and was rescued when a nearby fisherman threw her a flotation device. The children, however, died in the car while Elmezayen escaped through his window that he had left open and swam to the pier.  Elmezayen stood at the pier and watched his wife almost drowned, providing no assistance of any sort.

Elmezayen purchased more than $7 million in life insurance policies in the years leading up to the crime, then began to collect on the policies after the children’s deaths without Diab’s knowledge and tried to hide the money from her.  The Superior Court judgment follows Obagi’s representation of the victim mother in federal court in successful law and motion practice aimed at attaining a portion of the recovery of Elmezayen’s assets made by the FBI after his arrest.

About Litigation, P.C.

Based in Los Angeles and founded by Lead Counsel Zein E. Obagi, Jr. in 2012, Litigation, P.C. carries a reputation as a game-changing, fierce advocate for employees who have fallen victim to hostile employers, individuals who have lost assets to dishonest business partners, and personal-injury victims.  Litigation, P.C. comprises an energetic and highly skilled team who treats each client as if they were the firm’s only client, delivering time and again and attaining significant settlements and verdicts for them, At the heart of Litigation, P.C.’s success is its uncompromising core value:  Small Firm Attention, Large Firm Results.