The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has banned insurance broker David Marriott for persistent misuse of client money after using clients’ funds to support his businesses and finance bonuses, salary increases and new cars. The FSA said it took action against Mr Marriott, former chief executive of two insurance intermediaries Target Underwriting and Professional Insurance Select Limited (PISL), for failing to segregate and protect money from clients’ insurance premiums. The watchdog said Target and PISL were run as one business under the control...  Lire la suite

Allergan, the maker of the popular anti-wrinkle treatment Botox, said Wednesday it had agreed to pay 600 million dollars to settle a US probe into marketing for so-called off-label uses. The company said in a statement it agreed to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor “misbranding” charge covering the period 2000 through 2005 and pay the government 375 million dollars. It will pay an additional 225 million dollars to resolve civil claims from the Justice Department under the False Claims Act, which relates to fraud. The misbranding case...  Lire la suite

European Union regulators opened an antitrust probe on Thursday into the maritime insurance sector, citing concerns that certain agreements may harm ship owners. The European Commission said it would investigate agreements between the Protection & Indemnity Clubs, mutual non-profit associations that provide insurance to ship owners, within the International Group of P&I Clubs (IG). IG is a worldwide association of 13 P&I Clubs and its members, which include clubs from the United States, Japan and Britain, provide protection and...  Lire la suite

Three men have been arrested in the Lancashire area as part of an ongoing investigation into ‘cash for crash’ activity. The raids, which were made this morning, were carried out by Durham Constabulary’s Serious and Organised Crime Group. Warrants were executed at a total of four addresses in the Derwentside area, Lancashire. In July 2009 Durham Constabulary approached the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) with quantities of paperwork related to insurance claims highlighting anomalies with suspicious links to local businesses. Following...  Lire la suite

US insurance giant AIG has agreed to pay 725 million dollars to settle allegations of market fraud brought by three Ohio pension funds, the state’s attorney general said Friday. “The settlement resolves allegations of AIG’s wide-ranging fraud from October 1999 to April 2005 involving anti-competitive market division, accounting violations and stock price manipulation,” the office of attorney general Richard Cordray said in a statement. Cordray declared the class-action settlement a victory for the “teachers, firefighters,...  Lire la suite