Clarendon Insurance Group

The former owners of the Clarendon Insurance Group have taken legal action to force Travelers Indemnity and Executive Risk Specialty Insurance to satisfy $25 m of a $92 m judgment in Bermuda arising from a fraud committed by the now-defunct, Goldman Sachs-controlled Stirling Cooke group.

A $75 million breach of contract lawsuit stemming from the sale of the Clarendon Insurance Group to Hannover Re in 1999 has been settled just 18 days before the start of trial. The complaint by former Clarendon principals Ralph Milo and Robert D. Ferguson against Lion Holding Inc., a Delaware corporation, was dismissed with prejudice at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on March 13, 2008, with each party bearing its own costs and attorneys' fees. There is nothing in the court records to indicate whether any money changed hands as part of the settlement.

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.

Five years after legal action was started in the United States, a trial date has finally been set for a $75 million breach of contract dispute concerning the sale in 1999 of Clarendon Insurance Group Inc. to Hannover Re. January 7, 2008 is the scheduled start date at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for claims and counter-claims between former Clarendon principals Robert D. Ferguson and Ralph Milo, on the one side, and Lion Holding Inc., a Delaware corporation, on the other. Ferguson and Milo initiated the action on June 6, 2002. A second defendant, Hannover Re, was dismissed from the case on September 25, 2002.

A broker who has been active in the Bermuda insurance market for many years has been sentenced to 33 months in prison in the United States for defrauding the New York-based Clarendon Insurance Group. Martin Hoffman, of Bal Harbour, Florida, is due to begin serving his prison-term on October 2, 2006. He was also ordered to pay restitution of $4,222,182 to Clarendon at his sentencing hearing at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on May 15, 2006.

A United States based broker who has been active in the onshore and offshore insurance markets for many years has pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud.Martin Hoffman changed his plea from not guilty to guilty on one count

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

Clarendon America Insurance Company has obtained a default judgment against one of four defendants accused of causing the insurer damages of at least $40 million due to fraud.Judgment was entered against Lyndal Ray Stocks, a.k.a. Ray Stocks, of Houston, Texas, on February 7, 2003 at New York State Supreme Court. The court has yet to order a penalty.The case against co-defendants Eton Management Corp., registered in Delaware but based in New York; Martin Hoffman, of Bal Harbor, Florida; and his son, Wade Hoffman, of New York, is ongoing.

Hannover Re is being sued for $56 million by two former senior executives of Clarendon Insurance Group who claim to have been cheated out of executive compensation. Ralph Milo and Robert D. Ferguson have accused Hannover Re of reneging on their amended employment contracts which formed part of the sale of Clarendon to Hannover Re in 1999.

Goldman Sachs controlled Stirling Cooke Brown's problems worsened this month as the firm announced that its reinsurance subsidiary, Comp Indemnity Reinsurance Company Ltd., had become insolvent.News of CIRCL's insolvency was contained in the firm's 10Q filing with the SEC on

A former Managing General Agent for the Clarendon Insurance Group and business associate of Stirling Cooke who claims that a criminal indictment left him too depressed to work is suing an insurer for stopping his disability payments. David R. Sanz, 39, claims that he is still incapacitated even though he was acquitted of racketeering, grant theft and fraud by a jury in Florida more than two years ago.

Clarendon America Insurance Company is suing two US Virgin Islands-based brokers for $2.92 million of premiums that were allegedly sent to a firm controlled by Martin Hoffman, instead of to Clarendon. The lawsuit was filed against Marshall & Sterling of St. Thomas Inc, d.b.a. Theodore Tunick & Co., and Marshall & Sterling of St. Croix Inc. at the US District Court for the District of Delaware on July 14, 2000 before being transferred to Federal Court in US Virgin Islands on April 10, 2001.

Hannover Re has announced what it described as "disappointing" results for fiscal 2000 for the New York-based Clarendon Insurance Group, which it bought in February, 1999. Although Clarendon's gross premium income increased by 15 per cent to $1.7 billion, the firm's after-tax profit "fell markedly from $33.8 million to $1 million", according to a press release dated March 8.

InsideBermuda continues this month with the third installment of our in-depth interview with New York-based businessman Martin Hoffman, who has attracted his fair share of publicity since he entered the insurance industry in the 1960s and has been an active participant in the Bermuda market.

Dubious businessman Martin Hoffman has been soliciting reinsurance in Bermuda recently as a representative of First American Insurance Co., operating from New York, OffshoreAlert can disclose. And he is also operating another New York-based company called Wilton International Corporation, which describes itself as "a managing general underwriter and program manager that underwrites and manages international facultative property and marine business".

The Clarendon Insurance Group has terminated a substantial business production agreement with New York-based Eton Management, which is run by notorious businessman Martin Hoffman.

Hannover Re's purchase of the Clarendon insurance group is already causing the German reinsurer problems. On April 1, less than five weeks after the deal was completed, Hannover Re's stock was downgraded by investment bank Goldman Sachs due to concerns over Clarendon's exposure to the now infamous Unicover reinsurance pool.

Hannover Re's decision to finally go ahead with its purchase of the Clarendon insurance group after six months of deliberation has surprised several people in the industry who view the acquisition as a 'Beauty and the Beast' arrangement. But it appears that the deal, which finally closed at the end of February, may have substantially altered since it was first announced last August.

Serious questions about the future of Stirling Cooke Brown Holdings are being raised following the filing of a lawsuit in New York accusing the firm of racketeering and fraud and the collapse of its share price to an all-time low on NASDAQ. The company has also disclosed for the first time in its SEC filings that it is involved in several arbitrations in the UK and is also a defendant in seven different lawsuits that were filed last year by reinsurers and reinsureds claiming to have been defrauded.

Clarendon America Insurance Company moved its domicile to New Jersey in 1995 not long after a damning report into its business affairs by Delaware regulators, Offshore Alert can disclose. The company, which forms part of the US/Bermuda-based Clarendon group, was found to have breached numerous regulations during an examination by regulators Nicholas Prumatico and Ronald Fox.

There is still no official word on the status of Hannover Re's proposed acquisition of the Clarendon insurance group, which has companies in the US and Bermuda.

Robert Ferguson, who is the President of the US/Bermuda-based Clarendon insurance group, was in Germany from January 20-23 in a last ditch bid to save the proposed sale of the company to German giant Hannover Re, we have been told. Although the outcome of his visit was not known to us at publication time, Ferguson told acquaintances before the trip that the deal was "99 per cent dead", according to a source.

Receivers of the Florida Employers Safety Association Self-Insurers Fund sue David Sanz, share price of Stirling Cooke falls to new low on NASDAQ, Elite International Services offers dubious offshore products, Marc Harris on the move, prison inmate Ronald Williams apparently continues to rip people off during his day-release program, Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham puts both feet in his mouth during press conference for murder of foreign national.

An extract that mentions the Clarendon Insurance Group that appeared in the 'Failed Promises' report into the insurance industry that was published in the early 1990s by a US Congressional committee chaired by John Dingell.

Two reports into Stirling Cooke Brown that were compiled two years ago by a London firm of insurance investigators on behalf of a client gives an interesting insight into the history of the Bermuda-based insurance broker, particularly allegations that the company was involved in a reinsurance spiral. The alleged spiral that we have been told has dragged Stirling Cooke and the Clarendon group into arbitrations in London at least partly involves North American Fidelity & Guarantee and Stockholm Re (Bermuda).

Further allegations of wrongdoing against entities involving Clarendon Insurance Group Managing General Agent Martin Hoffman and Clarendon itself are contained in two US lawsuits currently awaiting trial. Both actions were filed at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York by the administrators of Qualis Care L. P., which is currently in bankruptcy.

As the share price of Stirling Cooke Brown Holdings Limited continues to plummet for reasons that appear unrelated to the general market slide, Inside Bermuda has uncovered fresh evidence that casts an extraordinarily negative light over the company and its main business partner, the Clarendon insurance group.

Annual statements filed with regulators by Clarendon National Insurance Company are becoming increasingly confusing, not to mention inaccurate in places. Take, for example, its 1996 filing with the New Jersey State Insurance Department, the home regulator for this operating arm of a group that has subsidiaries in Bermuda and the US.

A lawsuit filed three years ago in New York is revealing in that it includes details of another business deal involving Martin Hoffman that ended in tears amid allegations of fraud and dishonesty and shows a link between Hoffman, the Bermuda/US-based Clarendon insurance group and Bermuda insurance consultant Robin Spencer-Arscott.

Stirling Cooke Brown Holdings, a publicly-listed company over which there are several question marks, has reported a profit of $4 million for the three months ended March 31, 1998 - a 41 per cent increase on the same period a year earlier. The company reported that revenues went up by 39 per cent to $19.9 million, while reporting that expenses also increased by 39 per cent to $15 million.

Anyone doing business with the Clarendon Insurance Group should take a close look at further evidence we have obtained which clearly shows that either a senior officer of the group is lying about its relationship with a dubious business producer or the producer is submitting fraudulent documents to the London insurance market. Either way, the Clarendon officer who may have lied to us, Thomas Corteville, vice president/financial operations of Clarendon National Insurance Company, seemed more concerned with attacking this newsletter than analyzing the facts.

Rating agencies who have ‘A' rated the Clarendon Insurance Group, which has companies in the US and Bermuda, might want to take a close look at some of the third-party insurers who are producing business on the group's behalf.Of particular interest should be the business production relationships Clarendon has with New York-based Eton Management and Deep South Surplus General Agency, which is headquartered in Las Colinas, in the Dallas area.