February 9, 2001

A jury ordered Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu and four co-defendants to pay $454.5 million in damages to a Dallas company Thursday, saying they conspired to derail the company's plans to open CompUSA stores in Mexico. The company, COC Services Ltd., said it had an exclusive agreement to open the stores that hinged on finding an investor. Slim expressed interest in helping finance the deal. But COC's owners testified that Slim and his associates halted talks after gaining insider information about CompUSA, which Slim bought a few months later for $800 million. (AP)