(LOS ANGELES) — A California grandmother who lost her life savings in a real estate investment scam offered by an insurance agent was awarded more than $15 million Wednesday in a lawsuit against MetLife and two subsidiaries, attorneys said. Christine Ramirez, 75, was awarded the punitive damages by a Los Angeles Superior Court jury that found the companies and a former MetLife partner aided in both deceit and securities violations, along with counts of negligence and financial elder abuse. “I am so grateful to the jurors for seeing through MetLife’s finger-pointing argument that they weren’t responsible for the loss of my retirement savings,” Ramirez said in a statement issued by her lawyers. Ramirez was the first of 98 people who have sued after being bilked in a $200 million real estate fund scheme run by convicted felon Bruce Friedman, who died in a French jail while waiting to be returned to the U.S.