(Reuters) - Joseph Nacchio, the former Qwest Communications International [CTLQW.UL] chief executive, has won a $14.2 million jury verdict against a Goldman Sachs Group Inc (N:GS) unit and financial adviser over the sale of life insurance policies, his law firm said on Thursday.
Nacchio and his wife said Goldman's Ayco financial planning unit and their former adviser David Weinstein breached their fiduciary duties by failing to tell them that the $95 million of variable life insurance they bought in 2000 would likely lapse before their life expectancies, the law firm Nagel Rice said.
The couple was forced as a result to cancel their policies and pay $26 million in premiums to replace them, the firm said.
"We are disappointed with the verdict and plan to appeal," Ayco spokesman Brian Cuneo said. A lawyer for Weinstein could not immediately be reached for comment.
Bruce Nagel, a lawyer for the Nacchios, in a statement said the Morristown, New Jersey jury awarded everything his clients sought after a month-long trial. Nagel could not immediately be reached for additional comment.
Nacchio, 66, spent roughly five years in prison after being convicted in 2007 of insider trading. He was also ordered to pay more than $63 million in fines and forfeiture, court records show.
Qwest was a U.S. regional phone company based in Denver before it merged in April 2011 with CenturyLink Inc (N:CTL).