The Gaithersburg man suspected by police of involvement in the disappearance of a Frederick woman while they were vacationing together in Aruba is suing to get $3.5 million from an insurance policy he took out on her. Gary Giordano, 51, filed a lawsuit against AMEX Assurance Co. in Cook County, Ill., where the company has its headquarters.
Robyn Gardner was 35 when she vanished in Aruba in early August. Her disappearance earned international attention and drew comparisons to the still-unsolved case of Natalee Holloway, an American teenager who vanished in Aruba in 2005.
Giordano, Gardner’s vacation partner, has denied wrongdoing and says she was swept away on Aug. 2 while the two were snorkeling. He was detained in Aruba for several months. When he was released in November, prosecutors said he remained a “prime suspect” in Gardner’s disappearance.
According to the lawsuit, shortly before the Aruba trip, Giordano took out an insurance policy that covered Gardner. The lawsuit says that the policy provided for benefits of $3.5 million for accidental death and/or dismemberment.
Giordano said Gardner is presumed dead and that he has asked AMEX to pay the policy, but the company has refused, according to the lawsuit. Giordano thinks AMEX believes it doesn’t owe him any money under the policy.
American Express spokeswoman Gail Wasserman said that in cases where no body has been found, policyholders have to wait 365 days after a person is reported missing before before filing a claim “in order to make sure [missing people] don’t turn up someplace else.”
She declined to comment about the lawsuit specifically and said that when she contacted the company’s lawyers on Friday, they hadn’t yet received the lawsuit.
Giordano told the Associated Press that the lawsuit speaks for itself.
Gardner’s boyfriend, Richard Forester, did not return calls, but he told the Chicago Sun-Times that the lawsuit was “disgusting.”
“It goes to [Giordano’s] character … he is just trying to make money off of this,” he said.
Gardner’s father told The Washington Examiner that his wife, Andrea Colson, who typically speaks to the media on behalf of the family, was out of the country and wouldn’t be able to comment on the lawsuit.
Aruba’s chief prosecutor, Taco Stein, was also unavailable for comment.
Authorities in Aruba accused Giordano of not cooperating with police. “The case does not end here. Mr. Giordano will remain our prime suspect,” Stein said in November when Giordano was released.
Gardner had worked as a patient coordinator at a dental practice but lost her job shortly before the vacation.
She had an apartment in Frederick but had been living with Forester in Bethesda since January 2011. The trip was a surprise to Forester, who said he thought Gardner was going to Florida to see her family.
Last month, Giordano was arrested in Annapolis and charged with indecent exposure after he was found naked in a sport-utility vehicle with a woman, Anne Arundel County police said.
Aubrey Whelan contributed to this report.
