William Cox

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.

Some of the UK's top attorneys began arriving in Bermuda this month to prepare for the island's biggest ever civil trial, involving the alleged asset-stripping of the failed Bermuda Fire & Marine Insurance Company by some of the island's most prominent businessmen and companies. The trial, which is due to start on May 4, is expected to last four months and there have been no indications in the run-up to the off that the case will be settled.

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.

Bermuda Fire & Marine Insurance Company, which was stripped of over $40 million of assets two years before it went bust without Bermuda's regulators so much as batting an eyelid, is now estimated by its liquidators to be insolvent by an astonishing $1.4 billion. If the figures are accurate, Bermuda Fire would become not only by far the biggest insolvency in Bermuda's history but also one of the biggest insurance insolvencies anywhere in the world.

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.

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.

Despite the strong criticisms of the collapse of Bermuda Fire & Marine Insurance, the company's vice-chairman, lawyer and former UBP MP William Cox, yesterday maintained his year-long public silence on the affair."I have no comment," said Mr Cox, who is the senior partner in law firm Cox & Wilkinson.Bermuda Fire's chairman, former government Senate leader Charles Collis, the senior partner in law firm Conyers, Dill & Pearman, was not available for comment.Other directors who voted to approve the controversial split-up of the company in 1991 have steadfastly refused to comment publicly on their actions since Bermuda Fire went into provisional liquidation in November, 1993.