Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison has helped Citi to secure a $364.2m (£214.2m) damages payout after Italian dairy giant Parmalat was found to have defrauded the financial services firm, reports The Am Law Daily.

The verdict, which came on Monday (20 September), ends months of litigation after opening arguments took place in May.

Parmalat – represented by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges partners Kenneth Chiate, Steven Madison, Marc Greenwald and Peter Calamari – accused Citi of being complicit in the fraud that pushed the company into bankruptcy in December 2003. The ensuing scandal became known as 'Europe's Enron.'

Seeking $2.2bn (£1.3bn) in damages, Parmalat filed suit against Citi in Bergen County Superior Court, because that was where the company's former US subsidiary – now called Farmland Diaries – was based.

Citi was advised by Paul Weiss litigators Theodore Wells, John Baughman and Daniel Levi, who brought counterclaims against Parmalat, accusing the company of deceiving their client.

After three days of deliberations, New Jersey jurors awarded Citi the highest amount they could grant for monetary damages.

The award was the fifth-largest so far this year in the US. Citi must present the agreement to an Italian bankruptcy court in Parma, which could grant the company shares in the dairy giant.

Parmalat, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2005, currently has related civil actions pending against accounting firm Grant Thornton and Bank of America.

The Am Law Daily is the website of The American Lawyer, Legal Week's US sister title.