Former Marsh Execs Found Guilty on Anti-Trust Count, All Other Charges Dropped
Court officials at the New York State Supreme Court on Friday announced that two former executives at Marsh Inc, a unit of Marsh & McLennan Cos Inc were found guilty on a monopoly charge on Friday for participating in an insurance bid-rigging scheme, although all other charges were dropped, including fraud and larceny.
The former executives are William Gilman, a former executive in Marsh Inc's Global Broking unit, and Edward J. McNenney, a former global placement director.
"All of the charges that were thrown out sort of gutted (the government's) case, in my view," said Stephen Neal, a lawyer for McNenney. "We are going to appeal the conviction on the anti-trust count vigorously."
"Bill Gilman was really the client's best friend and the insurance carrier's worst enemy," said Gilman's attorney, Robert Cleary. "We look at this as merely round one."
The case, first brought in September 2005 by the New York Attorney General's office, was part of a sweeping investigation of insurance industry practices. Prosecutors argued that the pair misled the broker's excess casualty clients by steering business to selected insurers and preventing a competitive bidding process.
"We are gratified that the court found the defendants guilty of felony bid rigging," Jeffrey Lerner, the spokesman for Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, said in a statement.
Published on February 25, 2008
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