New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer has filed criminal charges against eight former senior managers of US insurance titan Marsh & McLennan regarding their alleged involvement in bid-rigging.
The indictments are some of the most significant Spitzer has issued since initiating his industry wide probe of the US insurance industry over a year ago. The eight former Marsh executives have been charged with colluding with senior management at other insurance companies, allegedly including AIG and ACE, to table over-valued uncompetitive bids in order to push up prices charged to corporate clients.
Other the past 12 months a number of major US insurers have been linked with Spitzer’s investigations, with Marsh, a subsidiary of the world’s largest insurance broker, Marsh & McLennan, featuring prominently. According to Spitzer and the Securities and Exchange Commission, the practise of ‘bid-rigging’ has unfairly cost clients millions of dollars.
These indictments are part of a continuing effort to hold individuals accountable for bid rigging and other illegal activities that defrauded insurance clients, Mr Spitzer said, while hinting that more could follow, We won’t close the book on Marsh prosecutions.