News - Business - Spitzer widens insurance probe
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has sued a second US insurer for allegedly rigging the insurance market to fatten its profits. Mr Spitzer filed the lawsuit against Universal Life Resources in the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan.
The attorney general, who has won fame by crusading against corporate casualty company great insurance lake News that Mr Spitzer was filing another case battered US insurance stocks. Mr Spitzer filed a lawsuit in October against the world’s biggest insurance broker, Marsh & McLennan.
Since then, Marsh & McLennan has replaced its chairman and several senior property casualty insurance indianapolis Hidden payments Mr Spitzer’s suit against ULR alleges the California-based firm received corrupt payments for steering its customers towards certain insurers. A lawyer for ULR said Mr Spitzer’s team had not contacted the firm about the lawsuit, the Associated Press reported.
The filing named the insurers as MetLife, Prudential Financial, and disability insurance specialist Unum Provident. They have said they are co-operating with the inquiry. Shares in all three fell by more than 3% on Friday. The lawsuit alleges that about two-thirds of ULR’s $25m (13.4m) revenues in 2003 came from hidden fees paid by insurers in return for steering clients towards them. ULR specialises in employee health insurance and life cover. Healthcare
In a statement, Mr Spitzer said his latest filing ohio casualty insurance company “Secret payoffs and conflicts of interest that infected the market for property and casualty insurance have taken root in the employee benefit market as well.” Insurance analysts believe ULR’s focus on employee benefits could make the lawsuit politically sensitive, though ULR is a smaller firm than Marsh. “This suit may have more far reaching effects than the previous one because the entire country is up in arms about the cost of health insurance,” said Fairbanks Consulting Group analyst Andy Barile. “This is about normal people paying too much for their health insurance not about a huge corporation buying property coverage around the globe,” he added.
ULR received a similar lawsuit in October from a group of policyholders, United Casualty insurance star, a non-profit organisation and has denied those mercury casualty insurance
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