A year later, we now know the details of “Hillsborough Heiress” Tiffany Li's settlement in the wrongful death lawsuit related to the 2016 killing of Keith Green, brought by Green's mother and joined by Li's two daughters.
Li will have to pay her two preteen daughters a total of $10 million, according to the settlement reached in early 2023. As ABC 7 was first to report, each girl will reportedly receive $5 million (minus attorney and litigation fees), and they will be able to access the funds when they turn 18.
The backstory, if you don’t recall: Li, whose father is a construction magnate in China and grew up primarily in the Bay Area, made national news when she was accused of conspiring to murder Green. (Green's body was found by a road outside of Healdsburg in April of 2016.) She was tried and acquitted in 2019 for lack of evidence against her, but soon faced another civil suit from Green’s mother, Colleen Cudd, who wanted a previously undisclosed sum of money for the girls and a modest $100,000 for herself.
Cudd tells ABC7 that she's glad the settlement money ensured "that the girls had something for themselves when they turned 18 and that they weren't controlled by their mother."
As we reported, this case has been a rollercoaster. Li agreed to settle, but there was a bunch of last-minte courtroom drama as Li avoided taking the stand in the case. She fired multiple lawyers — at one point, she retained attorneys from four different law firms, per the AP — and the settlement was renegotiated several times. Li also petitioned the judge at least twice to keep the terms of the civil settlement secret, blaming “xenophobia, Asian hate, and falsehoods publicized against [her],” according to one filing in 2022. She relocated with her kids to China several years ago, after her brief imprisonment and the media frenzy around the case.
In the wake of the murder, her family posted her $35 million bail. Prosecutors said that Li and her new boyfriend, Kaveh Bayat, a former friend of Green's and a big MMA fan, conspired with another MMA fighter, Olivier Adella (also known as Mustapha Traore), to carry out the murder. Li and Green were apparently involved in tense negotiations over the custody of their children after their romantic relationship ended. Adella admitted to being an accessory after the fact and served time, while Li maintained her innocence, suggesting at times that Bayat may have acted alone. The 2019 murder trial resulted in a mistrial for Bayat and an acquittal for Li.
Adella was ultimately freed in this case but re-arrested in 2020 for passport fraud. And to this day, no one has been convicted in the actual murder.
Now, Cudd’s lawyer says the settlement will allow the girls to have financial independence from the Li family, as well as reach out to the Green family when they want. For what it’s worth, Cudd also said she wanted to keep the settlement amount kept secret, for the sake of the girls' privacy.
But San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Danny Chou, who was trying the case, said there is no legal precedent for him to keep the amount under seal.
