ACE Settles Suit in Alleged Rig-Bidding Scheme

ACE Group Holdings Inc. announced that is has agreed to pay $4.5 million to eight states and the District of Columbia to settle charges that it colluded with Marsh Inc. to rig bids on commercial insurance contracts.

Published on October 29, 2007

The U.S. unit of Bermuda-based ACE Ltd. did not admit to the charges, but agreed to settlements with attorneys general of Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, Texas, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

In 2004, ACE had been as one of several insurers allegedly colluding in the bid-rigging scheme in a lawsuit filed against Marsh by then-New York Attorney General and now New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.

ACE agreed in April 2006 to pay $80 million in restitution and penalties to resolve investigations by New York, Connecticut and Illinois into the alleged bid-rigging and sham finite reinsurance contracts.

ACE had no comment on the latest settlement.