Michael Collier

A company formed by British investment fraudsters Lincoln Fraser and Jared Brook to disrupt the administration liquidation of their failed Imperial Consolidated Group, including perpetrating an asset recovery fraud against Imperial's investors, is about to go the way of most,

The liquidators of Bermuda Fire & Marine Insurance Company have disclosed that they received $50 million as settlement of one of the most high profile lawsuits in the island's history.However, $24 million of that went to cover fees and costs

One of Bermuda's longest-running farces came to an end this month when the Bermuda Fire & Marine Insurance Company trial ended with an out-of-court settlement. Seven months into the trial, the corporate and individual defendants threw in the towel and appear to have given the liquidators of BFMIC virtually everything they were seeking.

The Bermuda Fire & Marine Insurance trial began, as scheduled, on May 4 and most of the rest of the month was spent hearing allegations of lies, deceit and fraud against people who were at one time considered to be among the crème de la crème of the local business community.

What is probably the most eagerly-awaited civil trial in Bermuda's history - involving the alleged $50 million asset-stripping of Bermuda Fire & Marine Insurance Company while it was known to be insolvent - is scheduled to start on May 4, 1999. The trial, in which some of the island's best-known businessmen and companies are defendants, is expected to last four months.

Defendants in a fraud lawsuit involving Bermuda Fire & Marine Insurance Company made an offer last year of between $10 million and $15 million to settle the case, OffshoreAlert can reveal. However, Bermuda Fire's liquidators, Ernst & Young, rejected the offer on the grounds that it fell substantially short of what was acceptable, said a source whose company is owed money by Bermuda Fire.

A trial date has finally been set for what will be one of the most eagerly-awaited business-related civil trials in the history of Bermuda.Bermuda Supreme Court has provisionally set aside a date in the spring of 1998 to begin hearing allegations that some of the island's most influential businessmen stripped Bermuda Fire & Marine Insurance of assets valued at over $40 million even though they allegedly knew the firm was insolvent.

The focus of the court action filed yesterday against BF&M Ltd. and other co-defendants will be the complex sale of Bermuda Fire & Marine's profitable domestic business in 1991. Bermuda Supreme court must decide whether the sale was done fairly and in the best interests of the firm's policyholders and shareholders, as Bermuda Fire's directors claim, or whether it was a way of avoiding expected claims by U.S. policyholders, as creditors claim.

A lawsuit has been filed against some of Bermuda's best-known companies and individuals by the liquidators of Bermuda Fire & Marine Insurance Company Ltd. Although no amount has been stated in the legal action filed at Bermuda Supreme Court on Thursday (Oct. 5), the liquidators said earlier this year that Bermuda Fire's debts could exceed $100 million.

A decision on whether to sue some of Bermuda's most influential local businessmen for millions of dollars, stemming from the collapse of Bermuda Fire & Marine Insurance, is expected to be made over the next couple of months. At stake is over $100 million owed to creditors of Bermuda Fire & Marine Insurance and the credibility of Bermuda's regulatory and legal system in relation to protecting the rights of foreigners doing business with Bermuda-based insurers and reinsurers.