WASHINGTON, April 25 (UPI) -- The bankrupt Adelphia Communications Corp. will pay $715 million into a victim's fund for defrauded investors, U.S. officials said Monday.
In addition, the Rigas family, including Adelphia founder John Rigas, will forfeit more than $1.5 billion in assets, the officials said.
The settlement was announced by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department in Washington, but it was filed in Manhattan.
The settlement resolves a civil enforcement action and criminal charges against Rigas and his three sons, Timothy, Michael and James.
In its complaint, the commission charged Adelphia, at the direction of the individual defendants: fraudulently excluded billions of dollars in liabilities from its consolidated financial statements by hiding them on the books of off-balance sheet affiliates; falsified operating statistics and inflated earnings to meet Wall Street estimates; and concealed rampant self-dealing by the Rigas family, including the undisclosed use of corporate funds for purchases of Adelphia stock and luxury condominiums.
Adelphia is the sixth largest U.S. cable television provider.
