In his guilty plea, the Marsh executive admitted that during a period from 2002 to 2004, he instructed insurance companies to submit noncompetitive bids for insurance business, and conveyed these bids to Marsh clients under false and fraudulent pretenses. These noncompetitive bids allowed Marsh to control the market, to protect incumbent insurance carriers when their business was up for renewal, and to maximize Marsh's profits.
The defendant, who is a broker and senior vice president at the company, pleaded guilty before Justice James Yates in New York County Supreme Court to the crime of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, a class E Felony, which carries a maximum sentence of 1 1/3 to 4 years in state prison.
Six executives at four companies in the insurance industry have now pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the probe. Two executives at AIG, two from Zurich American Insurance Company, and one from ACE previously entered pleas to similar charges.
The Marsh executive is expected to testify in future cases, as are the five other insurance company employees who previously entered criminal pleas. Spitzer thanked the New York State Insurance Department for its cooperation in the joint investigation, which is continuing.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Whitman Knapp of the Criminal Prosecutions Bureau, under the direction of Deputy Chief of the Criminal Prosecutions Bureau Kevin Suttlehan and Chief of the Criminal Prosecutions Bureau Janet Cohn. Investigator John McManus of the Investigations Bureau under the supervision of Deputy Chief Investigator Hank Lemons assisted in the investigation.
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