Symington Settles Decades Old Development Suit

PHOENIX-After two decades of legal wrangling, former developer and Arizona governor Fife Symington has agreed to repay investors upward of $2 million.

Symington resigned as governor in 1997 as a result of a federal conviction. He was pardoned on former President Bill Clinton’s last day in office, scuttling plans for a retrial. The ex-governor supposedly rescued the former president from drowning when the two were at Harvard.

On Wednesday, Symington got the green light from a bankruptcy judge to repay pension funds involved in the financing of the Mercado shopping complex in downtown Phoenix. Court documents show he must pay pension fund investors $2 million or 40% of a family trust, whichever is greater, that he will inherit upon the death of his octogenarian uncle, Henry Clay Frick II. Symington reportedly is in line to receive millions.