David C. Farmer vs. Harmon - Witness Robin Campaniano

NEW DISCOVERIES (05-15-09): More evidence of fraud, bad faith, racketeering, undisclosed conflicts of interest between David Farmer, Robin Campaniano, AIG, Goldman Sachs, Henry Paulson, etc:

ZOOMINFO PROFILE FOR ROBIN CAMPANIANO

www.zoominfo.com/Search/PersonDetail.aspx?PersonID=6773481

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TARP: THE GREAT AMERICAN COVERUP

http://www.kycbs.net/TARP.htm

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NEW DISCOVERY (04-17-09): More evidence of fraud, bad faith, racketeering, money-laundering, undisclosed conflicts of interests, etc. between numerous entities and witnesses involved in this case:

April 17, 2009

AIG Hawaii sold to Farmers

State's 3rd-largest automobile insurer will change names when deal is done in summer

BY GREG WILES, Advertiser Staff Writer

AIG Hawaii, the state's third-largest automobile insurer, is being sold as part of a $1.9 billion deal as owner American International Group Inc. takes steps to repay some of the billions owed in government bailout money.

The deal announced yesterday involves Los Angeles-based Farmers Group Inc. buying AIG's auto insurance unit, a move that will expand Farmers into Hawai'i for the first time.

Yesterday Farmers Chief Executive Officer Robert Woudstra said that Farmers had no immediate plans to make any changes to AIG Hawaii's 310-person staff or operations.

"It's a good fit," Woudstra said from his Los Angeles office, explaining Farmers does not have any business in the state currently.

He said, however, the AIG Hawaii name will disappear.

"I can't tell you right now what we're going to call it, but the AIG name will have to go away."

AIG Hawaii had been contemplating a name change on its own given the stigma of being associated with its parent company, which had severe financial problems and needed a Federal Reserve-led rescue to avoid collapse last year.

In October, AIG put its auto group on the market as it looked for ways to pay off some of the bailout, which now totals about $182.5 billion.

AIG Hawaii President and Chief Executive Officer Robin Campaniano yesterday called the sale a positive development for the local unit. In 2008 AIG Hawaii's premiums written fell to about $100 million, about $18 million less than a year earlier.

Campaniano said some of the decline may have been due to clients departing because of the parent company's problems. A downturn in the Hawai'i economy contributed also.

"We're delighted that this is happening," said Campaniano.

"We're hopeful and very optimistic that the strength of Zurich and Farmers will greatly add to the presence we have in Hawai'i."

Farmers is owned by Zurich Financial Services Group, a Swiss company that serves customers in 170 countries and has business customers in Hawai'i.

AIG Hawaii insures about 100,000 cars in Hawai'i, along with offering homeowners, life, commercial and other insurance. Only Geico and State Farm insure more cars in the state.

Woudstra said he became familiar with the Hawai'i operations in examining AIG's business and that "it has performed exceedingly well for AIG."

"The only product that they write that we don't is flood (insurance)."

He said he had gotten good reports about Campaniano, with people saying nothing but positive things about his reputation.

The AIG automobile business was operated under a unit known as 21st Century Insurance Group, which owned AIG Hawaii as well as running operations in 28 other states. The sale will require the approval of state insurance commissioners.

Yesterday Hawai'i Insurance Commissioner J.P. Schmidt said he would closely look at the deal because of the role AIG Hawaii plays in the state.

"Farmers and Zurich are both good, solid companies, so that's a good thing," Schmidt said. "But we'll be looking at the details and specifics to ensure that the people of Hawai'i are taken care of in the best possible manner.”

The sale may be completed this summer. Schmidt said he and other insurance commissioners had been working on a uniform application process so that the sale approval can be processed efficiently.

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009904170352

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Catbird Note: More pages related to “good, solid companies,” Farmers and Zurich:

http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/0060-2007/nr091-2007.cfm

http://www.farmersinsurancegroupsucks.com/farmers_insurance_lawsuits.htm

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NEW DISCOVERY (04/17/09); More undisclosed conflicts of interest between David Farmer, Ben Cayetano, Earl Anzai, Lyn Anzai, Robin Campaniano, Edward Liddy, Goldman Sachs, Barack Obama, Henry Paulson, The Nature Conservancy, The Hawaii Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, Suzanne Case, Peter Savio, Faye Kurren, Haunani Apoliona, OHA, Robert Rubin, Kamehameha Schools, Nathan Aipa, Bishop Museum, William Simon, HonFed, Investors Equity Life Insurance Co., Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Colbert Matsumoto, Dan Inouye, AIG, CV Starr, Hank Greenberg, ACE Insurance, Ace Greenberg, Chubb Group, Marsh & McLennan, Rocco Sansone, Mercer Consulting, Aloha Airlines, Bill Clinton, Yucaipa, Hawaiian Airlines, Douglas Ing, Henry Peters, Judge Rey Graulty, Judge Barry Kurren, Judge Robert Faris, etc:

April 17, 2009

A.I.G. Chief Owns Significant
Stake in Goldman

By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH, New York Times

Edward M. Liddy, the dollar-a-year chief executive leading the American International Group since its bailout last fall, still owns a significant stake in Goldman Sachs, one of the insurer’s trading partners that was made whole by the government bailout of A.I.G.

Mr. Liddy earned most of his holdings in Goldman, worth more than $3 million total, as compensation for serving on the bank’s board and its audit committee until he stepped down in September to take the job at A.I.G. He moved to A.I.G. at the request of Henry M. Paulson Jr., then the Treasury secretary and a former Goldman director.

Details about his holdings were disclosed in Goldman’s proxy statement and confirmed by an A.I.G. spokeswoman, who said they constituted “a small percentage of his total net worth.” Mr. Liddy had already owned some stock in Goldman Sachs before joining its board in 2003.

He has said that he considers his work at A.I.G. to be a public service, performed on behalf of the taxpayers, who ended up with nearly 80 percent of the insurance company. His goal is to dismantle the company and sell its operating units, using the proceeds to pay back the rescue loans. On Thursday, A.I.G. said it had sold its car insurance unit, 21st Century Insurance, to the Zurich Financial Services Group for $1.9 billion.

Along the way, Mr. Liddy has clearly disclosed that A.I.G. was serving as a conduit, with much of the rescue money passing through and ending up in the hands of A.I.G.’s trading partners.

Goldman has said in the past that it had collateral and hedges to reduce the risk of its exposure to A.I.G.

Still, his stake could represent a potential conflict and is likely to reignite questions about Goldman’s involvement in A.I.G., and about why taxpayer money was used to shield A.I.G.’s trading partners from losses, when asset values plunged everywhere and most investors suffered greatly.

Had A.I.G. simply declared bankruptcy, the financial institutions doing business with it would have ended up in court, as they did in the case of Lehman Brothers, fighting to get pennies on the dollar for their claims.

Instead, Goldman Sachs received $13 billion of the Federal Reserve’s rescue money to close out various contracts it had outstanding with A.I.G. It was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the government rescue.

A spokeswoman for A.I.G., Christina Pretto, dismissed any suggestion that Mr. Liddy’s financial ties to Goldman might have shaped his actions at A.I.G.

“A.I.G. is a large institution that engages in standard commercial activity with companies all over the world,” Ms. Pretto said. “These activities are handled in the normal, day-to-day course of business and rarely, if ever, rise to the level of the C.E.O.”

She said in particular that Mr. Liddy was not involved in the discussions of how to close out the contracts of A.I.G.’s counterparties in derivatives and other forms of trading.

“Discussions regarding these matters were handled exclusively by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,” Ms. Pretto said.

According to Goldman’s proxy, Mr. Liddy holds 18,244 units of restricted stock, which would be worth about $2.2 million if they were sold at today’s market price. The rest of his holdings are in common stock. Restricted stock cannot be sold without incurring significant tax penalties, but the proxy said that Mr. Liddy’s restricted units would be converted to common shares on May 9.

Officials at the Fed, which initiated the bailout of A.I.G. last September, have said they were not happy about having to pour public resources into private sector companies, but felt that they had to do so to avoid a chain of losses at financial institutions all over the world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/business/17liddy.html?_r=1&em

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March 24, 2009

AIG Fallout

by Rick

Fallout from AIG bonus controversy is beginning to be felt by the insurer’s local operations.

In a March 16 letter to customers, AIG Hawaii CEO Robin Campaniano wrote that “some of you have contacted us to express your concern, and we share your frustration.”

Campaniano distanced the local insurer from its Mainland parent, which was sharply criticized by Congress and activist groups for issuing huge bonus checks to executives after receiving more than $180 billion in taxpayer-funded bailouts.

“The bonus payout by the holding company does not have any financial implications to AIG Hawaii, nor does it have any effect on your insurance premium or policy coverage,” Campaniano wrote.

“Last year we made a decision to stand by our customers in these tough economic tiems and we did not grant any performance bonuses in 2008. In addition, we made the decision that no employee of AIG Hawaii will receive salary increases or performance bonuses in 2009.”

AIG Hawaii is the third-largest auto insurer here and employs more than 300 workers statewide.

The company has sold more than $131 million in life insurance products, $29 million in homeowners policies and $90 million auto insurance policies statewide, according to the state Insurance Division.

Campaniano’s move to distance the local company makes sense. The bonus furor puts a huge target on AIG and competitors like State Farm and Geico are likely to capitalize on the controversy.

Tags: AIG, bailout, insurance

Posted in Biz Bites | No Comments »

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NEW DISCOVERY (11-30-08):

THE BEST GOVERNMENT MONEY CAN BUY

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NEW DISCOVERY (03-17-09): Additional undisclosed conflicts between Trustee David Farmer, Steven Guttman, John Waihee, Ben Cayetano, Linda Lingle, Robin Campaniano, Bruce Dunford, etc:

July 20, 2003

Chamber
embraces
Lingle

The governor vows more laws
that are favorable to business

By Bruce Dunford, Associated Press

Within minutes of taking over as the new chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii on Thursday, AIG Hawaii President and CEO Robin Campaniano made it clear the annual meeting's keynote speaker, Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, was on friendly turf.

The insurance company executive did so by taking a swipe at prior Democratic state administrations.

Campaniano noted that Lingle had observed some small AIG-logo gifts when she sat down at the head table and remarked: "You must be doing well."

"I felt a little reservation, because had that conversation taken place with the prior administration, as it did, I would have felt extremely uncomfortable, because the idea of businesses doing well was something that perhaps was not appreciated by the prior administrations," he said.

It was a revealing remark, considering Campaniano was state insurance commissioner under former Democratic Gov. John Waihee and was named by former Democratic Gov. Ben Cayetano as a member of the Hawaii Stadium Authority.

"I clapped when I heard it," said Sen. Fred Hemmings (R, Lanikai-Waimanalo), the Senate's minority leader.

Campaniano went on to describe Lingle's 7-month-old administration as being one that is "refreshingly helpful and sympathetic to the needs of Hawaii's business community."

Lingle said she needs the Chamber's help in improving the business climate through passing new laws, repealing bad laws and taking administrative actions.

Steps are being taken to reduce business registration fees, facilitating "one stop" online registrations, licensing, required filings and tax paying "from anywhere in the world," she said.

The governor focused on changes she said her administration is making in the regulation of workplace environment by the state's Occupational Safety and Health Division, or HIOSH, which "I think has been a thorn in the side of business."

"We want to make certain that under all circumstances that we protect employees in this state," Lingle said. "We want a safe workplace, but that's exactly what you want.

The way HIOSH has conducted itself in the past is as if only they want a safe workplace and all of you are out there trying to create unsafe conditions and we're going to get you because you won't do the right thing, and that attitude has to change."

She said the arbitrary enforcement of unclear regulations for workplace safety has to stop because it hinders the creation of jobs.

Instead of issuing a no-fine citation on the first violation, creating a mandatory "repeated offender" fine on any subsequent violations, the administration plans to issue warning letters for minor infractions, she said.

"We want to become known as a consultation agency rather than an enforcement agency in order to ensure workplace safety," Lingle said. "We think it's a better approach."

http://archives.starbulletin.com/2003/07/20/news/story5.html

NEW EXHIBIT (10-11-08): Additional facts regarding conflicts of interest between Steven Guttman and numerous parties related to this case:

www.kycbs.net/Google-Steven-Guttman.htm

www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Duca-James.htm

www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Guttman-Steven.htm

www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Kessner-James.htlm

www.kycbs.net/Claims-Branch-Kessner-Duca.htm

www.kycbs.net/Whistler.htm

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NEW DISCOVERY (09/16/08):

September 16, 2008

NIGHTMARE ON WALL STREET

Isle experts expect
wave of recession

Economists say the Wall Street crisis will likely
damage Hawaii’s delicate economy

By Kristen Consillio. kconsillio@starbulletin.com

Calling it a once-in-a-lifetime financial crisis, local finance experts expect the national market meltdown to lead to a recession in Hawaii.

"It's hard to see what could be the worst financial crisis in at least the last 50 years and have it not precipitate into something like a recession," said Neil Rose, chief investment officer of Honolulu-based Cadinha & Co. "We don't see this as a quick bottom - it's going to take some time to figure out exactly who is tied to these financial institutions."

Though far from Hawaii's shores, turmoil on Wall Street with the same-day news of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s bankruptcy, Bank of America Corp.'s acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. and AIG Hawaii parent American International Group Inc.'s plea for emergency funds is expected to exacerbate declining consumer confidence.

The state's lead tourism industry, already reeling from a sharp drop in visitors, is expected to spiral even further since it is tied to consumer spending and a healthy economy. Also of significant concern is the local housing market, which hinges on borrowing and financing for land development - a sector that is already struggling to make deals happen.

"We already predicted job losses for two years; that's a recession, and this can't do anything but make it worse," said Carl Bonham, an economist with the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization. "It's bad, there's absolutely no doubt about that."

UHERO, which is set to release an updated economic forecast this week, predicted in June job losses of 0.2 percent for both 2008 and 2009.

While Hawaii has held up better than most areas on the mainland, the state is still extremely vulnerable to outside factors, evidenced by isle foreclosures, which jumped 132 percent year-over-year in August.

To some extent, Hawaii is already seeing the effects of a recession, including increased bankruptcies, the demise of longtime businesses and mass layoffs statewide, according to finance experts.

"I don't think we're going into a depression, but we'll probably have a recession; no doubt about that," said Richard Dole, chief executive of Honolulu-based Dole Capital LLC, a specialty private equity investment banking firm.

"It's really a crisis of confidence," he said. "If people don't have a lot of confidence on the mainland, they're certainly not coming here. Foreign markets are suffering, too."

Paul Brewbaker, Bank of Hawaii's chief economist, said isle consumers should not worry too much about the upheaval among some of Wall Street's largest players.

"The losses in this kind of financial market turbulence are not the kind of things that retail consumers are exposed to, unless they're shareholders," Brewbaker said. "The thing to remember is that the capital markets, as a whole, are secure, although a number of firms have experienced losses severe enough to put them out of business."

Some investors are concerned that AIG's problems could spill over to other companies that do business with the firm.

"The way we look at it is, as far as we know, the insurance side of our operation is fine," said Robin Campaniano, president and chief executive officer of AIG Hawaii, which wrote nearly $120 million in premiums for fiscal 2008. "The nature of our problems have less to do with the performance of our insurance portfolio than the credit and the real estate markets."

http://starbulletin.com/2008/09/16/news/story01.html

For more, GO TO > > > AIG: The Un-American Insurance Group

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NEW DISCOVERY (09-16-08):

Googling for...

AIG and
The Philippine Connection

www.kycbs.net/Google-AIG-PI.htm

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NEW DISCOVERY (04-22-08): David Farmer’s undisclosed connections with AIPAC and “Hank” Greenberg:

From Exhibit: “CONNECTING THE DIRTY DOTS TO AIPAC”:

David C. Farmer, Successor-Trustee vs. Harmon

(Formerly Woo vs. Harmon & Nicholson vs. Harmon)

CV05-00030 DAE KSC

U.S. District Court For the District of Hawaii

Judges: David A. Ezra; Kevin S. Chang

—

DEFENDANT’S EXHIBIT

—

A few words of explanation:

In his "MEMORANDUM IN OPPOSITION TO DEBTOR'S MOTION FOR ORDER TO DISAPPROVE APPOINTMENT OF DAVID C. FARMER AS SUCCESSOR TRUSTEE", filed with the Court on August 24, 2007, the Trustee's attorney, Steven Guttman, Esq., of the law firm, Kessner Umebayashi Bain & Matsunaga, stated to the Court:

"... Harmon is once again attempting to create issues of conflict where none exist by attempting to draw connections between phantom dots."...

Mr. Guttman does not elaborate beyond this simple statement of HIS PERSONAL OPINION, as to WHICH of the thousands of connections I have cited that he wishes the Court to accept, without question, as being merely "phantom dots". In other court filings, Mr. Guttman has characterized my Motions as consisting of "conspiracy theories" -- again with no specific references.

Despite these unnamed "phantom dots" and "conspiracy theories", the Court has blithely and unquestionably gone along with Mr. Guttman's opinions and has repeatedly denied ALL Motions that I have made. In fact, both Courts involved have ruled that the Court Clerk shall not accept any future filings from me without the Courts' prior approval - which it has repeatedly declined to give.

Therefore, due to the fact that I continue to discover new, material FACTS almost daily, I am preparing a set of NEW EXHIBITS in which I intend to document the financial, professional, personal, and political connections between the many various entities involved in this case.

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The following is a listing of named witnesses in this case who have factual connections with AIPAC. Each underlined name has been linked to a detailed description of that witness to enable the Court to more easily CONNECT THE DOTS TO...

AIPAC

Investors Equity Insurance Company

Reliance Insurance Group