RenaissanceRe

Former RenaissanceRe Chairman and CEO James Stanard has been fined $100,000 after a United States federal judge determined that he had committed civil securities fraud regarding a finite risk transaction with Bermuda based Inter Ocean Ltd. U. S. District Judge

Former RenaissanceRe Chairman and CEO James Stanard has filed a motion to exclude the testimony of another ex-RenRe officer, Michael Cash, from his upcoming trial at federal court in New York, where he is defending a civil complaint alleging securities fraud that was brought by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Boston, Massachusetts-based mutual fund group Fidelity continues to be the biggest single investor — by a considerable margin — in the Bermuda insurance and reinsurance market.Fidelity owns at least 5% of the common shares of 10 of the 17 Bermuda-based companies publicly-listed in the United States that were included in an ownership review by InsideBermuda, based on filings with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The United Kingdom Government has been asked to provide details of any and all steps it has taken to ensure that corruption and fraud in Bermuda is "properly investigated".The request was made in a new report on British Overseas Territories by the Foreign Affairs Committee, which is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the administration, expenditure and policy of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and its associated agencies.

A second former senior officer of RenaissanceRe has settled a securities fraud action with the U. S. Securities Exchange Commission, leaving the firm's founder and ex chairman and CEO, James Stanard, as the sole remaining defendant.Under the terms of his

Former RenaissanceRe officer Michael Cash has won a legal battle to force the U. S. Government to turn over records concerning a criminal investigation into alleged fraud at the reinsurer.After months of delays and in the face of an imminent court order forcing it to comply with subpoenas from Cash, the U. S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York finally relented and agreed to provide the document by July 31, 2007. 

Mutual fund firm Fidelity has maintained its position as the single biggest investor group in the Bermuda insurance and reinsurance market.

Former RenaissanceRe officers James Stanard and Michael Cash have failed in their attempt to have an SEC securities fraud lawsuit against them dismissed. In an order dated May 16, 2007, U. S. District Judge Gerard E. Lynch, sitting at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, denied their motions to dismiss the SEC's complaint. The reasons for his decision were not immediately available from the court's on-line records.

Bermuda-based property catastrophe reinsurer RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. has agreed to settle a consolidated shareholder class action lawsuit at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by paying $13.5 million. RenRe announced the settlement on February 14, 2007 - five days after the firm disclosed that it had agreed to pay $15 million to settle a securities fraud lawsuit regarding the same conduct that was brought at the same court by the SEC. Neither settlement required the reinsurer to admit liability.

Property catastrophe reinsurer RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. has agreed to pay a $15 million civil penalty to settle a lawsuit filed against it in New York by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission. RenRe has also agreed to an injunction prohibiting future violations of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and to retain an independent consultant to review internal controls, according to the SEC, which announced the settlement in a press release issued on February 6, 2007 - the same day that the complaint was filed at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Two former senior officers of RenaissanceRe Holdings have filed motions to dismiss an SEC complaint that accuses them of committing securities fraud. The motions were filed by James N. Stanard, RenRe's former Chairman and CEO, and Michael W. Cash, RenRe's former Senior Vice President of Specialty Reinsurance, at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on January 2, 2007.

A civil complaint alleging securities fraud has been brought against three former senior officers of the Bermuda based RenaissanceRe insurance group by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.The action was filed at the U. S. District Court for the

Of the 14 publicly-listed, Bermuda-based insurers and reinsurers who recently filed their second quarter earnings with the SEC, only Scottish Re reported a loss.Commenting on a loss of $2.43 per share, or $121 million, Scottish Re's Interim CEO, Paul Goldean, said: “The results for the quarter are a sharp departure from our original projections and estimates provided to our stakeholders”.

RenaissanceRe has offered to pay $15 million to settle an investigation by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission into the firm's restatement of its financial results for 2001, 2002 and 2003.“Pursuant to the offer of settlement, which the SEC staff has indicated that it will recommend to the SEC Commissioners, the Company will consent, without admitting or denying any wrongdoing, to entry of a final judgment enjoining future violations of certain provisions of the federal securities laws and ordering the Company to pay disgorgement of $1 and a civil penalty of $15 million,” RenRe announced in a news release on July 31, 2006.

Former officers of Bermuda-based RenaissanceRe recently suffered two discovery setbacks in their defense of a securities fraud lawsuit brought by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.On June 25, U. S. District Judge Gerard E. Lynch, sitting at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, denied an application by Bermudian national Michael Cash to delay Cash's deposition until after he has deposed co-defendant and fellow former RenRe officer Martin Merritt and non-party Jonathan Reiss.

Mutual fund firm Fidelity has increased its position as the largest single investor group in the Bermuda insurance and reinsurance market.The Boston, Massachusetts-based group owns at least five per cent of the common shares of 12 of the 16 companies whose ownerships were reviewed by InsideBermuda, compared with eight of 14 companies in a similar review last year. As of June 30, 2006, Fidelity's total stake in the Bermuda market had a stock market value of approximately $5.6 billion.

Property catastrophe reinsurer PXRE Group was the worst of the bunch as 15 Bermuda-based, publicly-listed insurers reported their - mostly horrendous - fourth quarter results to the SEC during February. Two-thirds of the firms reported net losses, while only two actually managed to make an underwriting profit, as opposed to relying on investment returns to compensate for a lack of underwriting success. Just about the only thing that many firms were successful at towards the end of 2005 was tapping into the seemingly endless supply of capital available to the industry.

Bermudian Michael Cash, who resigned as on officer of RenaissanceRe after refusing to accept service of an SEC subpoena, will soon have a few more process servers at his door.Along with four other officers and the company itself, Cash has been named as a defendant in at least two class action complaints filed at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Fidelity - the largest mutual fund group in the United States - has maintained its position as the largest single investor group in the Bermuda insurance market.Fidelity owns at least five per cent of common shares in eight of the 14 Bermuda-based, publicly-listed insurers whose ownerships were reviewed by InsideBermuda. That is three more major investments than another Boston, Massachusetts-based fund group, Wellington Management, which was revealed as the second biggest ownership group in our review. Collectively, Fidelity's stakes have a market value of more than $2.7 billion, with Wellington just behind at $2.5 billion.

Segments of Bermuda's insurance industry are in chaos as law enforcement and regulatory agencies in the United States crank up their investigations into offshore transactions.AIG's local operation appears to be in melt down, while finite risk reinsurer Inter Ocean Reinsurance

RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. announced on February 28 that it had received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with an industry-wide investigation into non-traditional insurance products.

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.

RenaissanceRe Holdings announced on September 23 that it was buying 3.96 million shares of Platinum Underwriters Holdings Ltd.The purchase was through a private placement concurrent with the closing of Platinum's announced initial public offering of its common shares and the

RenaissanceRe Chairman and CEO James Stanard has topped InsideBermuda's annual insurance executive compensation review for the fifth straight year with a package valued at $24.4 million for fiscal 2001. Stanard's compensation was almost three times the value of the runner-up - his colleague at RenaissanceRe, David Eklund, who earned $8.6 million.

RenaissanceRe announced on February 25 that it had filed with the SEC a shelf registration statement for the proposed offering of up to $500 million of securities. "Under this shelf registration statement, the Company will have the flexibility to sell debt securities, common and preferred shares, warrants and share purchase contracts and units, as well as trust preferred securities or a combination of the above," stated the firm.

RenaissanceRe reported net income of $50.6 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2001 - an increase of 33.9 per cent compared with the same period of 2000. Revenues went up by 17.7 per cent from $104.9 million to $123.4 million, while expenses fell by 13 per cent from $65.6 million to $57.1 million. Operating earnings per common share grew to $2.07 in the fourth quarter, from $1.79 per common share in Q4 of the previous year.

Industry watchers have been taken aback by the aggressive strategy adopted by Superior National Insurance Group Inc. in its $175 million contract dispute with Inter-Ocean Re and Inter-Ocean's principal shareholder, American Re-Insurance Company.Not content to wait for the outcome of arbitration proceedings that are due to be held soon in New York, Superior National filed a lawsuit against both parties in Los Angeles County Superior Court on September 7 in which they seek $200 million.

An arbitration between Bermuda-based Inter-Ocean Reinsurance Company and Superior National Insurance Company over a $175 million contract could take place before the end of the year. The dispute relates to coverage Inter-Ocean provided to US-based Business Insurance Group - now a subsidiary of Superior National - and 100 per cent reinsured by American Re.

RenaissanceRe president and CEO James Stanard has topped a survey valuing the shareholdings held by the top officers of Bermuda-registered publicly-listed insurers in their own companies, with a stake valued at $48.7 million on March 16, 1998.