Listed Securities

A Pennsylvania judge has criticized state insurance regulators in the United States and reinsurers for failing to save two property and casualty subsidiaries of Bermuda-based Mutual Risk Management. On June 26, Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt granted petitions from Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Diane Koken to liquidate Legion Insurance Co. and Villanova Insurance Co.

Cayman Islands resident Myron Gushlak has been arrested in the United States after a criminal complaint was filed against him alleging securities fraud. Gushlak was arrested on April 25, 2003 - the same day that an arrest warrant was issued at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He is currently in custody.

The Hartcourt Companies has become the latest affiliate of Bermuda-registered Mezzanine Capital, whose shareholders have included subsidiaries of Lines Overseas Management and the Bank of Bermuda, to be accused of securities fraud in the United States. A civil lawsuit was filed by the SEC at the U. S. District Court for the Central District of California on May 27, 2003 against The Hartcourt Companies Inc., which is registered in Utah and based in California; Alan V. Phan, 57, of Long Beach, California; and Yongzhi Yang, 45, of Los Angeles, California.

In a libel action at Grenada High Court, Grenada attorney Anselm B. Clouden has been awarded $2,500 in damages and $450 in costs against the First International Bank of Grenada and its one time CEO, Van A. Brink. The award

Parties who sold the Clarendon Insurance Group to Hannover Re in 1999 had to accept $25 million less than an agreed price because two reinsurers stopped paying claims during sale negotiations, it has been alleged. The reinsurers, The John Hancock

RenaissanceRe Chairman and CEO James Stanard has topped InsideBermuda's annual insurance executive compensation review for the sixth consecutive year with a package valued at $17 million for 2002.His package was 50 per cent higher than the runner-up, his colleague William Riker, with RenaissanceRe officers filling the highest four positions and five of the top six.

Overseas Partners Ltd. has paid its first liquidating distribution.

ESG Re senior officers have been buying the firm's shares recently, notwithstanding its awful performance, culminating in its de-listing by Nasdaq effective February 3.

Problem firms Annuity & Life Re (Holdings) and AlphaStar Insurance Group, formerly known as Stirling Cooke Brown Holdings, face being de-listed from NYSE and Nasdaq, respectively.

Arbitration Award in 2003 against Robert Bales, currently suspected of murdering 16 civilians in Afghanistan while serving as a Sergeant in the U. S. Army, and others for defrauding a client.

Complaint alleging securities fraud filed by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission against Agora Inc., Pirate Investor, LLC and Frank Porter Stansberry at the U. S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

The shares of Trenwick Group Ltd., whose legal headquarters are in Bermuda, have begun trading on the over-the-counter bulletin board market after being suspended by the New York Stock Exchange. Both its common shares and the Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock of its Bermuda-based subsidiary LaSalle Holdings Ltd. are listed, under the symbols "TWKGF" and "LSRAF", respectively.

Auditor KPMG stated in an SEC filing on March 21 that there is "substantial doubt" about the ability of Annuity & Life Re to continue as a going concern. The comment was made in a note to the financial statements dated February 11, 2003 that was part of an amended annual report for fiscal 2001 that contained restated figures. The auditor cited "significant losses from operations and experienced liquidity demands".

Amended Complaint in IBP, Inc. and Foodbrands America, Inc. v. Andrew Joseph Zahn and Philip Sexauer at the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Lancer Offshore Inc., which is registered in the British Virgin Islands and listed on the Irish Stock Exchange, has brought a libel lawsuit against the New York Post - one month after notifying investors it was effectively suspending cash redemptions. The libel action was filed at New York State Supreme Court on February 14, 2003 after the Post published three negative articles about the Fund, which purports to have assets valued at $1 billion, and/or its principal, Michael Lauer.

Annuity & Life Re shares collapsed to penny stock status on February 25 - the days after the firm announced it had ceased writing new business and was expecting "significant losses" for the fourth quarter. Its shares closed at 76 cents, compared with $18 per share only seven months ago and $35 per share 11 months before that. The company went public in April, 1998 at $15 per share.

Cayman Islands-based businessman Kenneth B. Dart, whose family made a fortune in the Styrofoam cup business, has acquired a 5.7 per cent stake in financially crippled Mutual Risk Management. Dart's firm Ross Financial Corporation, which is domiciled in Cayman, has acquired 2,377,600 common shares, according to a Dart-signed document dated February 13, 2003 that was filed with the SEC.

Eight days before it was due to make a minimum payment of $350,000 towards its 2002 purchase of an ecommerce company, a group controlled by Bermuda-based oil magnate John Deuss has sued the seller. Transworld Payment Solutions NV and First Curacao International Bank NV, which owns Bermuda Commercial Bank, filed a civil complaint at Bermuda Supreme Court on February 21, 2003.

Goldman Sachs has sold its entire 22.9 per cent stake in AlphaStar Insurance, formerly Stirling Cooke, back to the company for five cents per share - about one third of its current trading price. Goldman was keen to sell so that its investment vehicles could take a write off before the end of the tax year and agreed to buy at a discount to avoid creating the appearance of self-dealing, AlphaStar's CEO, Stephen Crane, told InsideBermuda.

Trading on the over-the-counter market of shares in a company that Bermuda-based Lines Overseas Management was helping to do a reverse take-over of has been temporarily suspended pending an investigation by the Securities & Exchange Commission in the United States.

Despite $25 billion of new capital, there currently exists "the greatest deficit of reinsurance capacity since 1992", according to Patrick Thiele, President and CEO of Bermuda-based PartnerRe.

Stirling Cooke North American Holdings Inc., AlphaStar Insurance Group Ltd. and Realm National Insurance Company filed a civil lawsuit at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on December 27, 2002 alleging breach of contract against American Insurance Managers Inc., American Insurance Management Group Inc. and Atlanta Insurance Marketing Inc.

Almost 12 months to the day after it began operations, Bermuda-based Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. filed a registration statement with the SEC to raise up to $200 million in an initial public offering.Endurance Specialty, which provides property and casualty insurance and reinsurance, intends to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker 'ENH'.

Second Quarter (2004) Results Round-Up for Bermuda insurers

AXIS Specialty Limited has completed its acquisition of Royal and SunAlliance Personal Insurance Company.The New York-domiciled professional reinsurance company will be renamed AXIS Reinsurance Company as a result of the change of ownership.

No fewer than six class action lawsuits were filed against Annuity & Life Re (Holdings) Ltd. in December, 2002 at federal court in Connecticut.The complaints, which will eventually be consolidated into one action, were filed less than a month after the firm announced it was re-stating its financial results for 2001, 2001 and the first half of 2002, causing its share price to plummet by as much as 44 per cent.

ACE Ltd. announced on December 4 that it is to cut its underwriting at the Lloyd's of London insurance market by more than a third next year.ACE, which is one of the largest investors at Lloyd's, will cut its capacity to approximately $1 billion (£650 million) in 2003 from about $1.4 billion this year.

John Head's ESG Re announced in December that Deloitte & Touche had resigned as its auditor and withdrawn its audit for fiscal 2001 and review reports for three quarters, including the first half of 2002.

Lloyd's of London has banned Stirling Cooke Brown Insurance Brokers Ltd. from transacting any new business in the market, effective December 4, 2002.

Five of the seven Bermuda insurers reinsurers reported losses for the quarter ended September 30, 2001, with PartnerRe leading the way with a loss of $338.5 million, although the firm that appears to be on its last legs is Stirling

Only one of the six Bermuda based, publicly listed insurers which reported quarterly results in November made a profit. The fact that it was its arch rival, Scottish Annuity & Life Holdings, was salt in the massive wounds currently being

A Bermuda domiciled firm linked to fraud allegations involving over the counter stocks traded in the United States has voluntarily de listed its shares from the Bermuda Stock Exchange.In a press release on November 12, the BSX stated the shares

A suspected fraudster who has worked in the insurance industry in Bermuda and the Bahamas has gone on the run again despite being fitted with an electronic monitoring device.John Keith McGarrity was fitted with the monitoring device after being arrested

Naïve or cynical? That was a logical question to ask of United States Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Governor George Pataki after they teamed up with suspected fraudster Jerry C. Nims, whose Bermuda based business failures have cost investors millions

A raid on an alleged boiler room in Vancouver is further evidence that the Bank of Bermuda may have been conned out of $14.3 million when it invested in First Ecom.com Inc.

At a time when Mutual Risk Management was desperate for cash to meet its liabilities, its then Chairman and CEO, Robert Mulderig, owed the firm an advance of $318,303, according to an SEC filing. Details of the debt, which has

Canadian securities regulators and armed police have raided a Vancouver boiler room operation closely linked with Brek Energy, whose offshore investors, including the Bank of Bermuda and clients of Lines Overseas Management, have lost tens of millions of dollars in

Robert Mulderig has retired as Chairman and CEO of financially troubled Mutual Risk Management Ltd., effective November 1, 2002, according to an MRM filing with the SEC. He has been replaced by David Ezekiel, who is President and Managing Director

In the same month it warned the market that it would report a loss for the third quarter, Max Re announced a change in its business strategy."In response to market conditions", stated Max Re, the firm "now plans to write

ACE Ltd. was the only loss maker of the four Bermuda based, publicly listed insurers that reported their third quarter earnings in October, with RenaissanceRe, XL Capital and IPC Holdings reporting profits.Also reporting a profit was the unlisted Allied World

Another of the masterminds behind a massive investment fraud that cost the Bank of Bermuda tens of millions of dollars has been sentenced to five years in prison. Charles Richard Homa was also ordered to pay restitution of $157 million

Annuity and Life Re, whose stock has plummeted from $26 to $4 per share this year, has reached an agreement with Citibank to extend its $49 million unsecured letter of credit facility into 2003.Under the agreement, Annuity and Life stated

XL Capital has formed a strategic relationship with PlusFunds Inc. to support the development of investment products based on Standard & Poor's latest index, the S&P Hedge Fund Index."The Index is designed to be investable and representative of the broad

Canadian national Gregory Pek has retired as President and CEO of loss making Brek Energy, formerly First Ecom.com, and been replaced by 57 year old Richard Jeffs.Pek stepped down only a few months after overseeing Brek's purchase for $770,000 of

First Amended Complaint in SEC v. Florida Stock Transfer, Inc., Vector Holdings Corporation, and Allen Weintraub at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

The recent European floods led to announcements of potential losses in September by ACE and PartnerRe.ACE, which is due to releases its latest earnings on October 29, stated that its third quarter operating income will be hit "by approximately $90

Two lawsuits that may be winding up petitions have been filed against companies that are part of the Mutual Risk Management Group.Both actions were filed at Bermuda Supreme Court under The Companies Act 1981, according to a source. This is

PartnerRe's United States based operation has been dragged into litigation over who is responsible for paying $29 million of losses relating to weather derivative contracts covering 'special events'. PartnerRe was named as a third party defendant in a complaint filed

Bermuda based Allied World Assurance Company Ltd. announced two new appointments during September Executive Vice President Scott Carmilani was appointed as Senior Underwriting Officer and Cotina D. Forth Albuoy joined as Assistant Vice President, General Casualty.Cotina has 12 years' experience