IT'S NOT THE 1ST BAILOUT FOR AIG. CHECK OUT ALLIED WORLD ASSURANCE: THE 9-11 AXIS OF GREED AND EVIL -- The Catbird's Forum

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Date Posted: 21:24:40 03/18/09 Wed
Author: Bobby N. Harmon
Subject:

IT'S NOT THE 1ST BAILOUT FOR AIG. CHECK OUT ALLIED WORLD ASSURANCE: THE 9-11 AXIS OF GREED AND EVIL

CV05-00030 - U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of the U.S. Trustee, David C. Farmer, Trustee vs Harmon - Exhibit: "Allied World Assurance Company: The 9-11 Axis of Greed and Evil"

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 11:50 PM

From: "bobby_n_harmon@yahoo.com"

To: "Barack H. Obama" , "Eric Holder" , "David Farmer" , "Steven Guttman" , "Carol K. Muranaka" , "David A. Ezra" , "Judith Neustadter" , "Kevin S.C. Chang" , "Barry M. Kurren" , "Securities & Exchange Commission Enforcement Division" , "U.S. Treasury Dept. Office of Inspector General" , "Office of Inspector General US Dept of Justice" , "Executive Office for U.S. Trustees" , "Bunny Greenhouse" , "Robert Faris" , "Anthony Romero" , "ACLU of Kentucky" , "Electronic Freedom Foundation" , "Public Citizen" , "Thomas Fitton" , "SEC Office of The Inspector General" , "Robin Campaniano"

Cc: "ACLU Hawaii" , "All Representatives" , "All Senators" , "Andrew Walden" , "Aon Insurance Managers" , "Arthur Rath" , "Benjamin Kudo" , "Bradley Tamm" , "Carl Morton" , "Charles Goodwin" , "Charles Hurd" , "Dave Shapiro" , "Dee Jay Mailer" , "Dorothy Sellers" , "Executive Office for U.S. Trustees" , "Hugh Jones" , "Insurance Division Fraud Branch" , "J C Shannon" , "James B Nicholson" , "James B. Farris" , "James Cribley" , "James Paul" , "James Wriston" , "Jeffrey Watanabe" , "Jim Dooley" , "Jo Ann Uchida" , "Joe Moore" , "John D. Finnegan" , "John Goemans" , "Judge Lloyd King" , "Judith Neustadter" , "Judson Witham" , "Ken Conklin" , "Kenneth Hipp" , "Lawrence Reifurth" , "Linda Lingle" , "Lyn Flanigan Anzai" , "Margery Bronster" , "Marsh Affinity Group" , "Michael N. Tanoue" , "Michelle Tucker" , "Nathan Aipa" , "Office of Inspector General Civil Rights Complaints" , "Office of the U.S. Trustee District of Hawaii" , "Paul Alston" , "Randall Roth" , "Rick Daysog" , "Robert Bruce Graham" , "Robin Campaniano" , "Samuel P. King" , "Susan Tius" , "William K Slate" , "Jim Terrack" , "Don Michak" , "Rocco Sansone" , "Ted Pettit" , "Mark Burch" , "Laura Thielen" , "Vaughn & Lynda Robinson" , "Rebecca Christie" , "Catbird" , "James Duca" , "Ian Lind" , "Roy F. Hughes" , "Malia Zimmerman" , "Elisa Yadao" , "Ray Fuqua" , "Jack Cashill" , "Bo Gritz" , "Marshall Chriswell" , "Tom Flocco" , "Michael Moore" , "Eric Shine" , "Laser Haas" , "Lucy Komisar" , "Democrats.com"
Allied World Assurance Company

The 9-11 Axis of Greed and Evil

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Sightings from The Catbird Seat

~ o ~

September 19, 2001

AIG Chairman Makes Plea

The Honolulu Advertiser

American International Group Inc. chief executive Maurice "Hank" Greenberg wants the government to help hold down damage claims from the World Trade Center attack, according to a report by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. analyst Alice Schroeder.

AIG, the biggest insurer, has said its claims from last week's attack would be about $500 million, and Schroeder said the cost may reach $800 million.

Greenberg, 76, who has run AIG since 1967, hopes to forestall litigation from the attack that destroyed the World Trade Center, which may increase insurers' costs and delay paying claims, Schroeder's report says.

$ $ $

From Elite Watch - 911 Review:

Maurice R. Greenberg

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AIG

76 years old

#106 on Forbes Worlds Richest People

Net Worth: $3.4 billion

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November 27, 2001

AIG, Chubb, Goldman Sachs Establish New
$1.5 Billion Bermuda Insurer

Insurance Journal

American International Group and Chubb Corp have joined with GS Capital Partners 2000, L.P., an investment fund managed by Goldman Sachs & Co. to establish Allied World Assurance Holdings Ltd. with a total equity capital of $1.5 billion.

The holding company will operate Bermuda-based Allied World Assurance Company (AWAC) which is set up to underwrite insurance and reinsurance business worldwide.

The announcement, long rumored to be in the works, marks the latest entry in a growing number of new insurance ventures, mostly established in Bermuda, designed to take advantage of the anticipated rise in insurance rates and increased demand for coverage following the Sept. 11 attacks.

According to the announcement AWAC plans to be open for business �no later than December 3, 2001 in order to meet the demand expected in the January renewal period.�

AIG CEO Maurice �Hank� Greenberg will be the Chairman of the holding company�s Board of Directors, and Chubb CEO Dean O�Hare will serve as Deputy Chairman.

AIG put up $291 million of the initial capitalization; Chubb and GS Capital each contributed $250 million. The remainder came from outside investors, including Swiss Re. Its CEO Walter B. Kielholz will also serve on the Board of Directors.

�Insurance markets have experienced unprecedented demand for a number of coverages, without which businesses cannot be operated prudently,� said Greenberg in a written statement. �AWAC will supplement existing market capabilities and capacity, providing a broad range of insurance coverages worldwide for businesses that have large and complex risks.�

The establishment of AWAC by companies the size of AIG, Chubb and Goldman gives even more validity to long-time reinsurance consultant Paul Waither�s view, expressed in an interview in September, that �The bigger ones will get bigger and will be able to realize higher premiums.�

Chubb�s participation in AWAC also raises questions about its continued support for legislation designed to tax Bermuda-based companies to eliminate �unfair tax advantages.�

O�Hare, along with Hartford�s CEO Ramani Ayer, has been one of the most persistent and vocal advocates for such legislation....

For more of AIG�s �unfair tax advantages�, GO TO > > > Act 221

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How Dare They!
While we have our hands on our hearts...

http://www.howdarethey.org

November 15, 2001

Insurance Industry Stands to Benefit
from Changes Wrought by Sept. 11

By Christopher Oster, The Wall Street Journal

For Marsh & McLennan Cos., the Sept. 11 attacks have meant two very different things.

One is personal loss. The world�s largest insurance brokerage lost 295 employees who worked at the World Trade Center. �It was very painful for us, agonizing for loved ones and close friends,� Jeffrey W. Greenberg, Marsh�s chairman and chief executive, told employees at a memorial service in St. Patrick�s Cathedral in New York on Sept. 28.

But in the days after the attacks, even as the company was sorting out who was safe and who had perished, it quickly became clear that Sept. 11 presented a tremendous business opportunity for Marsh and other strong players in the industry.

Within days of the twin towers� destruction, Mr. Greenberg and top lieutenants began planning to form a new subsidiary to sell insurance to corporate customers at sharply higher rates than were common before Sept. 11. Marsh also accelerated plans to launch a new consulting unit to capitalize on heightened corporate fears of terrorism. Vice Chairman Charles A. Davis says the company is merely meeting new marketplace demands. �There�s a financial reward for doing that,� he says.

Unlike airlines, which are reeling as travelers hesitate to fly, insurers have seen improved financial prospects since Sept. 11. Insurers expect to have to pay out $40 billion to $70 billion in claims related to the attacks. That sounds daunting, but in fact, it is manageable for an industry that collectively has $300 billion in capital.

Moreover, in response to Sept. 11, insurers are already raising prices by 100% or more on some lines of commercial and industrial insurance. ... For much of the 1990s, carriers had engaged in a price war, keeping premiums relatively low. The prospect of large payouts related to the attacks gave the industry grounds for demanding substantial increases....

Insurance stocks have jumped 7% since the attacks, outpacing the broader market, and the atmosphere in the industry is one of eager anticipation. Marsh set out to raise about $1 billion in outside money to capitalize in a new company. Investors volunteered six times that much, and dozens had to be turned away.

Amid these signs of robust health, however, the industry is stressing potential disaster as it pressures Congress for emergency aid. By the end of December, lawmakers are expected to approve legislation under which the government could have to pick up billions of dollars in claims related to future terror assaults in the U.S.

This federal backing would have tremendous financial value to insurers in the event of another disaster. And it would have an immediate impact, too, emboldening the industry to sell new terrorism coverage, for which it will charge higher premiums. Carriers collect their money now, while the government would help pay any claims later....

In the weeks after Sept. 11, newspapers carried numerous advertisements touting insurers� intent to pay disaster claims promptly. Less well-known is how these companies plan to recoup much of the money they will be sending to policyholders....

The decade-long premium-price war had been ending before the attacks, as weaker insurers collapsed or retrenched and stronger ones began gradually to charge more. Now, faced with payouts related to Sept. 11, the healthier companies are demanding that their customers share the pain by paying higher premiums. Some insurance companies are so confident in this strategy that they are expanding operations. Since Sept. 11, at least seven insurers have sold additional shares of stock. An additional six, including Marsh, have formed new companies.

Among the new units is a Bermuda-based carrier put together by American International Group Inc., Chubb Corp. and investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. and RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. are creating another one. Since Sept. 11, insurers have raised a total of about $4 billion in new capital, to which they are adding a modest amount of their own money....

Since the attacks, aviation underwriters have raised premiums for airlines by 200% to 400%, according to insurance brokers. At the same time, the underwriters are canceling parts of airlines� coverage for liability to third parties other than passengers in future terrorist acts.

U.S. airlines don�t have to worry about these increases immediately. The airline-bailout bill Congress approved after Sept. 11 included provisions under which the federal government for six months will pay any increases in commercial insurance and cover airlines� potential third-party liability for terrorism. In the not-too-distant future, though, the airlines could collectively face billions of dollars in additional annual premiums.

New Surcharge

Led by giant AIG, insurers have offered airlines a new, more-expensive package to replace the rescinded terrorism coverage. The new price includes a $3.10-per-passenger surcharge. Lacking the backing of the U.S. government, numerous foreign airlines are buying the new coverage, which is expected to boost insurers� revenue by a total of hundreds of millions of dollars a year....

Medium-sized and small corporate policyholders are also seeing premiums jump. One week after the attacks, Industrial Risk Insurers, a unit of General Electric Co.�s Employers Reinsurance unit, told textile manufacturer Johnston Industries Inc. that it wouldn�t renew Johnston�s property-insurance policies, which expired Oct. 31. Bill Henry, a vice president at the Columbus, Ga., company, says it wound up paying $1 million more to a European carrier for a year�s coverage ... a 150% increase. The limit of the new policy is only $350 million, or half of what Johnston previously received from the GE insurance unit....

Government Aid

While aggressively raising premiums, the insurance industry has been busy seeking relief in Washington. Ten days after the attacks, a delegation of chief executives, including AIG�s Maurice R. Greenberg, the father of Marsh�s Jeffrey Greenberg, descended on the capital to lobby President Bush and lawmakers.

The industry leaders sounded an alarm that reinsurance companies � which spread corporate risk by selling insurance policies to the insurance industry � were moving to cancel terrorism-related reinsurance coverage. The big primary carriers told the politicians they would eliminate almost all terrorism coverage unless the government stepped into the role of the reinsurers.

Without this coverage, many lenders would hesitate to finance everything from factories to new real estate development, the insurance executives warned their Washington hosts. Large area of the economy could grind to a halt.

The pitch worked. Congress in now expected to approve a mechanism that will guarantee that if there are huge future terrorism liabilities, taxpayers will help pay them....

�This is not a bailout,� says Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, home to several large carriers. Rather, the government is proposing to serve as a �backstop� to encourage underwriters to provide terrorism coverage, he says....

Marsh & McLennan see vast opportunity in this fast-changing environment. The company is primarily an insurance broker, not an underwriter. As a result, it has limited exposure to Sept. 11 property and liability claims. It took a $173 million charge for the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, to cover costs related to the attacks. A big piece of that was for payments to families of its own injured and dead employees.

Marsh�s Mr. Greenberg knows well the dangers of appearing opportunistic in the wake of catastrophe. He gained this experience after Hurricane Andrew hit Florida in 1992, which until Sept. 11 was the industry�s costliest disaster.

Then a vice president at his father�s AIG, the younger Mr. Greenberg wrote an internal memo saying that Andrew was �an opportunity to get price increases now.� After the memo was leaked to the media, Florida regulators imposed a moratorium on premium-rate increases.

This embarrassment didn�t stop Jeffrey Greenberg, now 50 years old, and his subordinates at Marsh from swiftly scouring the post-Sept. 11 business landscape for new opportunities.

The World Trade Center attacks were a devastating blow to the company, which has its headquarters in midtown Manhattan. About 1,900 Marsh employees worked in the twin towers. Within an hour of the attacks, the company had set up a phone bank to assemble information about the missing. Counseling sessions and memorial services were held daily for weeks.

Modest Disruption

From a business perspective, the disaster caused only modest disruption for Marsh, which has 57,000 employees worldwide. On the evening of Sept. 11, Mr. Davis, Marsh�s vice chairman and chief of its MMC Capital arm, sent a fax to Mr. Greenberg�s home that accounted for the unit�s employees � they were all safe � and suggested the formation of a new subsidiary that would underwrite corporate policies.

�We were absolutely thinking about the impact [of the attacks] and what the opportunities were in front of us,� says Mr. Davis, who came to Marsh from Goldman Sachs three years ago.

At a Sept. 18 meeting, 20 executives from Marsh�s operating companies discussed the new terrain in their industry. Participants noted the premium increases already being announced and cancellations of terrorism coverage. Policy-holder demand was as strong as ever, meaning prices could only rise.

There was strong support for Mr. Davis�s idea for a new company. It wouldn�t be the first time Marsh gave birth to an underwriter. In the mid-1980s, it launched Ace Ltd. and Excel Capital, now known as XL. Those moves came in response to some established insurers ceasing to write liability coverage in the wake of huge jury awards for asbestos-related illnesses and big judgments against corporate directors and officers. Both Ace and XL went on to become publicly traded. Marsh retains small stakes in them.

Marsh raised its initial fundraising plan for the new carrier by 50%, to $1.5 billion. But that still wasn�t enough to accommodate all of the investors lining up for a piece of the action. GE�s GE Asset Management unit and TIAA-CREF, the national teachers� pension-fund manager, were among those allowed to buy stakes. Many others were turned away.

As the investor list was being winnowed, Mr. Greenberg was stirring another pot. He called L. Paul Bremer, a former U.S. ambassador at large for counterterrorism, who had joined Marsh a year earlier.

�Funny you should ask,� Mr. Bremer says he responded to Mr. Greenberg�s query about new business opportunities.

Mr. Bremer had been working on a plan for a crisis-consulting practice for several months. �It was clear to both of us that he should accelerate the introduction of that practice,� Mr. Greenberg says.

On Oct. 11, Marsh announced the formation of a new consulting unit, with Mr. Bremer at its head. Two weeks later, Marsh unveiled a partnership between its new unit and Versar Inc., a counterterrorism-service provider. The partnership will assess chemical and bioterrorism risks for corporate clients....

Continued at...

http://www.kycbs.net/Allied-World-Assurance.htm

# # #

Related references:
http://www.kycbs.net/911-COVERUP.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Ace.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Act-221.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/AIG.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CITIGROUP.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Geithner-Timothy.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Inouye-Dan.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Liddy-Edward.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Obama-Barack.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Paulson-Henry.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Rubin-Robert.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/GE.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/GoldmanSachs.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Insurance-Vampires.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Treasury.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/XL.htm
http://www.voy.com/129276/1247.html
http://watchdog.net/p/daniel_inouye/contribs

March 18, 2009

Dear President Obama, Attorney General Holder, Mr. Farmer; Mr. Guttman; Ms. Muranaka; Judge Ezra, Judge Chang, Judge Kurren, and All Concerned:

This references the subject Exhibit and related witness descriptions which provide more evidence of fraud, tax evasion, money-laundering, racketeering, bad faith, violation of anti-SLAPP statutes, and undisclosed conflicts of interest among various entities involved in this lawsuit.

In view of all the facts that I have presented in this and hundreds of other Exhibits, it is beyond comprehension that Judges Eden Hifo (fka Bambi Weil), Kevin Chang, David Ezra, Barry Kurren, Lloyd King, and Robert Faris, and Trustees Mary Lou Woo, James Nicholson, and David C. Farmer; the American Arbitration Association arbitrator Judith Neustadter Fuqua, and attorney Steven Guttman can still claim that they were non-conflicted, impartial, and unbiased in this case.

In spite of all this factual evidence, however, I am again asking that we attempt to reach a global settlement of this matter through confidential negotiation or mediation rather than continuing these costly and seemingly-endless court proceedings.

If you still are NOT willing to attempt to negotiate or mediate a settlement, then I ask that you review this new Exhibit and advise me if you find it contains any so-called "protected subject matter", and whether or not you intend to OBJECT to my filing a Motion to reopen this case.

Mr. Farmer, I respectfully request your immediate reply. If I do not receive a response from you or your insurance carrier within 15 days, I will assume that you have found no "protected subject matter" in these updated pages, and that you will NOT file any objections to my Motion to reopen this case.

Very truly yours,

Bobby N. Harmon, CPCU, ARM

Related links:
http://www.kycbs.net/Apartheid-Hawaii.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Bailing-Out-Wall-Street.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Broken-Trust-Book.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Confessions.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Freedom-To-Sing.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/JUSTICE.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Lost-Generations.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/No-Bailout-for-Billionaires.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/PunaConnection.htm

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