Segal Files $700 Million Lawsuit Against Aon, Former Near North Employees

Michael Segal, the founder and former CEO of Chicago-based broker Near North Insurance, has filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court seeking a total of $700 million in damages from six former employees who joined Aon, also named as a defendant, after a power struggle within the company.

Segal, who is awaiting trial on federal charges that he improperly appropriated money from a company trust fund, also named five other employees and two insurance companies in what he alleges was a conspiracy against him.

The charges include numerous allegations that the defendants hacked into some 20,000 confidential e-mails, including correspondence with attorneys, copied other Near North company records, and used the information against Segal and the company.

According to a report from the Chicago Tribune, the lawsuit gives vivid details of a power struggle at Near North between Segal and five of his employees whom he claims tried to wrest power from him. Following their failure to do so, he alleges that they left Near North and joined Aon, where they cooperated in the federal investigation against him, and tried to divert business. The purloined e-mails were allegedly sent to the employees, who had gone to work for Aon.

Near North has also sued former employees for violating their employment contracts by going to work for a competitor, and has filed a complaint with state regulators over alleged violations of Illinois rules governing insurance.

While the battle between Segal, Aon and Near North may lack the drama of Chicago’s Prohibition Era gang wars, it’s nonetheless a high stakes game. Aon is the second largest broker in the world, while Near North specializes in high profile clients and the entertainment industry. Segal’s charges also cast doubts on the testimony of the former employees, whom it seems, were not uninterested parties.

Topics Lawsuits Aon