Berkley Engages Outside Counsel to Conduct Internal Investigation on Information Requests

W. R. Berkley Corporation has affirmed, as previously disclosed, that it has retained outside legal counsel to conduct an internal investigation following the announcement by the New York Attorney General’s Office of its investigation into alleged anti-competitive activities in the insurance industry.

“The Company commenced this internal investigation at its own initiative, not as a result of any specific inquiry,” said the bulletin. “Although the internal investigation is ongoing, outside legal counsel have interviewed a number of employees and reviewed hundreds of thousands of pages of documents.”

The announcement noted that since commencing its internal investigation, “the Company and certain of its operating units, like many others in the insurance industry, have received information requests from various state insurance regulators and other state authorities. These requests, for the most part, relate to inquiries into inappropriate solicitation activities, producer compensation practices and the underwriting of legal malpractice insurance.

“We are responding to each of these inquiries and are cooperating with the applicable regulatory authorities. As a result of our investigation, a single insurance operating unit reported certain limited instances of conduct, which could be characterized as involving inappropriate solicitation practices. To address these limited instances, the Company has implemented certain additional internal procedures and is taking other corrective action.”

Latest Comments

• December 28, 2004 at 1:47 am

  David Riffert says:

  Seems to me that Mr Spitzer in his zeal to punish a broker, has unleased a torrent of requests to insurers in general, the costs of which are borne by shareholders and ultimat... read more