AlphaStar Insurance

The now-defunct, Bermuda-based insurance broker best-known as Stirling Cooke Brown has agreed to pay up to $42.3 million to settle claims with its one-time business partner, Clarendon Insurance Group. A motion to approve the settlement was filed by Stirling Cooke's Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustee, Richard E. O'Connell, at the U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on November 30, 2007.

The Bankruptcy Trustee of the Bermuda-based group formerly known as Stirling Cooke has received court approval to subpoenas to three former officers as part of an investigation into its financial affairs. In an order dated December 19, 2005, U. S. Bankruptcy Judge Stuart M. Bernstein, sitting at the U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, ordered that subpoenas can be served on former officers Stephen A. Crane, President, Chairman, and CEO; Anthony J. Del Tufo, Chief Financial Officer; and James Lawless, General Counsel, compelling them to provide documents and oral testimony.

Collapsed broker AlphaStar Insurance Group may seek compensation from one of its founders, Nicholas Brown, over the alleged mismanagement of the company.In other news, the company has drastically revised a controversial bonus plan to pay bonuses totaling $1.6 million to

In the latest fall out from the fraudulent practices of Bermuda based broker AlphaStar Stirling Cooke, a U. S. insurer is being sued for unpaid claims that may eventually total $60 million.John Hancock Financial Services Inc., of Boston, Massachusetts, is

A U. S. based insurance firm is making a renewed attempt at acquiring a policy issuing subsidiary of the AlphaStar Insurance Group for $1.5 million - which is $10.5 million less than an agreed purchase price.Atlanta Insurance Marketing Inc., of

Two UK subsidiaries of the Bermuda-based AlphaStar Insurance Group, formerly Stirling Cooke Brown Holdings, have lost a UK High Court judgment that has implications for many related reinsurance lawsuits and arbitrations around the world.AlphaStar's share price fell from 13 cents to seven cents per share after the judgment was released today and many in the industry expect the decision to render the long-troubled firm insolvent.

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.

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