Mealey's Reinsurance
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December 10, 2024
Bank, Related Entities Face Another Suit Connected To Vesttoo Collapse
NEW YORK — China Construction Bank Corp. (CCBC) and related entities are facing yet another lawsuit in connection with the collapse of Vesttoo Ltd., with plaintiffs asserting breach of contract and alternative claims in New York federal court.
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December 05, 2024
Bid For Insurance Magnate’s Halfway House Stay Denied In Money Laundering Case
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina federal magistrate judge denied a motion filed by insurance magnate Greg Lindberg, the former owner of now-insolvent insurers, for detention at a residential reentry center or halfway house pending sentencing after he pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy regarding his $2 billion scheme to defraud insurers and policyholders by funneling money through his extensive global network of insurance companies and was convicted on retrial in a related criminal proceeding.
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December 05, 2024
Judge Tosses Suit By Insurance Mogul With ‘Turbulent History Of Litigation’
TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida federal judge on Dec. 4 issued a sua sponte order dismissing without prejudice a declaratory judgment suit filed by insurance mogul Greg Lindberg against the North Carolina Department of Insurance and its commissioner regarding a receivership seeking in part a declaratory judgment as to the total liability owed to Lindberg’s now-insolvent North Carolina insurers, finding that “the parties’ dispute is better litigated in the state court of North Carolina.”
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December 04, 2024
Scienter Is Focus Of Dismissal Arguments In Securities Suit Involving Reinsurance
NEW YORK — Scienter is the key issue in dismissal arguments in a putative class action, with the named plaintiff telling a New York federal court that “improperly accounting for reinsurance premiums” led to material overstatements and investors were also misled on “internal controls,” and the defendants challenging “the misguided assumption that the Company’s identification of an accounting error and weakness in internal controls necessarily equates to securities fraud.”
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December 04, 2024
Magnate Seeks Extension In $1B RICO Insurance Fraud Case, Cites Jail Difficulties
RALEIGH, N.C. — Citing “significant restrictions” related to insurance magnate Greg Lindberg’s communication with counsel while being held at a county jail pending sentencing in separate criminal actions, Lindberg and his co-defendant asset management companies moved in North Carolina federal court for more time to respond to an amended complaint in a suit accusing them and other parties of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) violations related to their purported participation in a $1 billion scheme to defraud now-insolvent insurers once owned by Lindberg.
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December 04, 2024
Deal In Progress Reported In Coverage Row Over Loss Of Patent Litigation Counsel
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Without providing details, the parties in a coverage dispute over loss of patent litigation counsel filed a notice in Tennessee federal court “that they have reached a settlement in principle of all matters in dispute.”
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December 04, 2024
Life Insurer’s Rehabilitator Aims To Present ‘Key Terms’ Of Plan ‘By Mid-2025’
HARTFORD, Conn. — The rehabilitator of a life insurer and the subsidiaries that reinsure its liabilities told a Connecticut state court in an accounting and status report that he “expects to have a significantly improved reinsurance management program in place by year-end 2024” and aims to present “the key terms of a plan of rehabilitation by mid-2025.”
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November 25, 2024
Unspecified Deal To Settle Is Reported In Heart Transplant Reimbursement Row
GALVESTON, Texas — In a Nov. 22 text-only docket entry citing a notice of settlement in a health maintenance organization (HMO) dispute regarding heart transplant reimbursement, a Texas federal judge extended the deadline for objecting to the recommendation of ruling for a reinsurer.
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November 25, 2024
7th Circuit Affirms Dismissal To Arbitration In Preclusion Row
CHICAGO — Saying that neither Morgan v. Sundance, Inc. nor Section 13 of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) casts doubt on Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals precedent establishing “that the preclusive effect of an arbitral award is an issue for the arbitrator to decide, not a federal court,” a panel on Nov. 22 affirmed dismissal to arbitration of a lawsuit reinsurers filed over asbestos-related liabilities.
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November 25, 2024
Motion To Set Trial Date Denied Without Prejudice In Long-Running RESPA Suit
FRESNO, Calif. — In a brief Nov. 22 text-only order, a judge sitting by designation in California federal court denied without prejudice a motion to set a trial date in a long-running Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) class action involving captive reinsurance agreements.
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November 22, 2024
COMMENTARY: 2024 Key Insurance Decisions, Trends & Developments & A Look Ahead To 2025
By Scott M. Seaman, Pedro E. Hernandez and Lisa M. Roccanova
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November 22, 2024
Indemnification Claims Challenged In Suit Over Clash Reinsurance
NEW YORK — Arguing inconsistency and seeking a declaration that it doesn’t have a duty to indemnify an insurer that settled claims stemming from alleged sexual abuse of female athletes by Larry Nassar and others, a reinsurer sued the insurer in New York federal court.
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November 21, 2024
Joint Powers Authority Wins Remand Of Coverage Suit Against Reinsurer
LOS ANGELES — Agreeing with a joint powers authority (JPA) that it “is an arm of the state and therefore is not a citizen of California or any other state” for purposes of diversity jurisdiction, a California federal judge on Nov. 20 granted remand to state court of the JPA’s lawsuit over a reinsurer’s denial of coverage for litigation arising from sexual abuse allegations.
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November 20, 2024
Plaintiffs Who Persuaded Jury In Microcaptive Row Lose Attorney Fee Bid
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Saying that the government’s “inability to convince the jury of the merits of its case does not change the substantial justification of its position,” a Florida federal judge on Nov. 19 denied the corporate plaintiffs’ motion for approximately $600,000 in attorney fees and costs in consolidated cases where they successfully challenged penalties imposed because the Internal Revenue Service deemed their involvement with purported microcaptive insurance companies to be promotion of abusive tax shelters.
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November 20, 2024
DOL Files Suit Over Alleged Self-Dealing Involving Health Plan MEWA
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Alleging that two companies and three individuals associated with a multiple employer welfare arrangement (MEWA) violate the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by using self-funded employer-sponsored health benefit plans “as vehicles to collect and divert to themselves massive fees through self-dealing,” acting U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Julie A. Su sued them in Puerto Rico federal court.
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November 19, 2024
Renewed Dismissal Bid Fails In Direct Action Case Against Reinsurers
NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal judge on Nov. 18 ruled that allegations that an insurer “is functioning as a fronting company, with the actual risk being transferred to its reinsurers” are sufficient to make dismissal of third-party direct-action claims against the insurer’s unnamed reinsurers “premature.”
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November 19, 2024
Compelling Arbitration, Judge Says MOU Is ‘Closely Related’ To Reinsurance Contract
LOS ANGELES — Concluding that a 1984 memorandum of understanding (MOU) is “closely related to the reinsurance contract and not a completely separate agreement,” a California federal judge granted reinsurers’ motion to compel arbitration in a lawsuit over reinsurance billings arising from asbestos bodily injury claims.
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November 18, 2024
Insurance Mogul Says Deposition Sealing Not Needed In SEC Fraud Suit Against Him
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Insurance mogul Greg Lindberg, a former owner of insurers now in receivership, on Nov. 15 filed in a North Carolina federal court a notice stating that “continued sealing” of certain transcript excerpts of his deposition is unnecessary in a suit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that he, his advisory services company and its former executive defrauded clients of more than $75 million.
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November 18, 2024
Parties Dispute Former CEO’s Bid For Severance Benefits During Liquidation
MADISON, Wis. — The termination of former Wisconsin Reinsurance Corp. and 1st Auto & Casualty Insurance CEO Jason A. Fogg has become an issue in those entities’ liquidation, with Fogg filing an objection in Wisconsin state court to denial of his claim for more than $660,000 and the liquidator countering that the termination was “for cause” under his executive employment agreement.
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November 15, 2024
Defendants Seeks Extension In $1B RICO Insurance Fraud Scheme Involving Magnate
RALEIGH, N.C. — Defendant asset management companies on Nov. 15 moved in North Carolina federal court for more time to respond to an amended complaint in a suit accusing them, former insurance magnate Greg E. Lindberg and other parties of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) violations related to their purported participation in a $1 billion scheme to defraud now-insolvent insurers once owned by Lindberg.
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November 14, 2024
Citing Loper Bright, Farm Seeks U.S. High Court Review Of Crop Insurance Ruling
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Arguing that Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo should have prevented the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals from deferring to a regulatory interpretation of the Federal Crop Insurance Corp. (FCIC), a farm petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for review of a crop insurance case.
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November 14, 2024
2nd Circuit Won’t Review Dismissal Of Whistleblower Suit Against Reinsurer, Others
NEW YORK — Saying in part that there is “substantial evidence” for the conclusion that the petitioner “did not subjectively believe that” the conduct he cited in a whistleblower retaliation complaint “constituted criminal fraud or violated any securities law provisions,” a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel issued a Nov. 13 summary order declining to review dismissal of the complaint.
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November 14, 2024
Government Files Counterclaim In Suit Over Captive Insurance Program, Penalties
PITTSBURGH — In a text-only order, a Pennsylvania federal judge removed the Internal Revenue Service from the caption of a dispute over a suit over penalties resulting from that agency’s decision that a Pittsburgh-based corporation’s involvement with a purported captive insurance program constituted tax shelter promotion; additionally, the government has moved to dismiss or strike a laches claim and asserted a counterclaim.
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November 13, 2024
Guilty Plea Entered In Insurance Magnate’s $2B Money Laundering, Conspiracy Case
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Insurance magnate Greg Lindberg, the former owner of now-insolvent insurers, pleaded guilty Nov. 12 in a North Carolina federal court to money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy regarding his $2 billion scheme to defraud insurers and policyholders by funneling money through his extensive global network of insurance companies and holding companies.
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November 13, 2024
Amicus Bid Is Contested In 6th Circuit Appeal Of Collateral Estoppel Ruling
CINCINNATI — A request for permission to file an amicus curiae brief in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has drawn a reinsurer’s opposition in the appeal of a ruling that collateral estoppel applies to a defense costs dispute concerning asbestos lawsuits and prior arbitration.