Risky investments in...
Riscorp
Sightings from The Catbird Seat
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April 8, 2009
Treasury says some insurers
qualify for TARP
By David Lawder
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury said on Wednesday some life insurers have met requirements for government capital investments under an existing rescue plan, and their applications for funds are now being considered.
"There are a number of life insurers that have met requirements for the Capital Purchase Program because of their bank holding company status," said Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams. "These are among the hundreds of financial institutions in the CPP pipeline that will be reviewed and funded as appropriate on a rolling basis."
The statement was made in response to a Wall Street Journal story published late on Tuesday saying the Treasury would extend its $700 billion financial bailout program to certain life insurers and would make an announcement in coming days.
Williams said any capital investments in insurers that have bank holding company status would not constitute a new rescue program for the insurance sector.
The Treasury clarification caused stocks to pare gains, particularly the major insurers who were viewed as the likely benefactors of a widening of the Treasury's financial bailouts. Prudential Financial Inc shares had climbed more than 12 percent at one point in early trade, but by mid-morning were up 6.3 percent at $23.50, while MetLife's earlier 10 percent gain was chopped back to about 3.4 percent at $24.98.
In recent months, some insurance companies have received approval to acquire banks, paving the way for them to participate in the Capital Purchase Program, which the Treasury has estimated will top out at $218 billion.
As of Tuesday, the program had $198.5 billion invested, leaving $19.5 billion in available funds, according to Treasury documents. A Treasury official said only a small number of life insurers have met the qualifications for the program.
Reuters reported in February that the Treasury was actively considering applications for capital injections from about a dozen insurance companies.
In addition to Met Life and Prudential, other insurers that now have bank holding company status include the Hartford Financial Services Group Inc and Lincoln Financial....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090408/bs_nm/us_financial_bailout_insurers
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From The *** CENSORED *** Seat - Part II:
Riscorp Inc. - From Business Insurance - 9/22/97:
Chairman, four former officers of Riscorp indicted over donations - A federal grand jury has indicted the chairman and four former officers of workers compensation insurer Riscorp Inc for allegedly funneling $383,500 in illegal campaign contributions to more than 20 Florida politicians, including two state insurance commissioners. . . .
Named in a 27-count indictment last week were William D. Griffin, chairman of the Sarasota, Fla.-based insurer; James A. Malone, former Riscorp president; Thomas E. Danson Jr., former executive vp; Richard A. Halloy, former cfo, and Edward J. Hammel, former sr vp-finance. . . .
The five men, who were hoping to gain political favors, also solicited lawyers and consultants doing business with Riscorp to make contributions that Riscorp then would reimburse, disguising the payments as professional fees, prosecutors charge....
One of the main beneficiaries of Riscorp’s money was former Insurance Commissioner Tom Gallagher, who received about $57,000 in illegal contributions in his 2990 campaign for the commissioner’s job and another $48,000 in his unsuccessful 1994 run for governor ...
Riscorp had been a major provider of managed care workers comp insurance and services in Florida, North Carolina and several other states. However, it has drastically scaled back its operations after being battered by a variety of troubles since its 1996 initial public offering, including a pending civil racketeering suit by disgruntled policyholders and the delisting of its stock from the NASDAQ stock exchange. ...
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[Some catcalls: And where did the money go from Barclays Bank? Of course only royalty and Robert Rubin may really know, but — Barclays Bank is the 4th largest institutional investor in Goldman Sachs; the 4th largest in Marsh & McLennan; the 6th in Chubb Group; the 2nd in Citigroup; the 6th in Lockheed Martin; the 4th in Raytheon Company; the 5th in Columbia/HCA; the 2nd in Merrill Lynch; the 4th in Riscorp, Inc.; the 3rd in Conseco, Inc.; the 6th in Trump Hotel/ Casino; the 7th in Mirage Resorts, Inc.; the 5th in Boyd Gaming Corp.; the 6th in Harrah’s Enterprises; the 2nd in Bank of America; the 4th in American Express; the 3rd in CBS Corp; the 2nd in America Online, Inc; the 4th in Time Warner, Inc.; the 5th in Wilmington Trust; the 3rd in PNC Bank; the 3rd in Allstate Insurance; the 2nd in American International Group (AIG); the 4th in Xerox Corp; and the #1 institutional investor in The Walt Disney Company — just to name a few possibilities.]
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And ... the sixth largest institutional investor in Barclays is Citigroup, Inc. The tenth largest is Bank of America.
November 27, 2007
Wall Street leads surge in
corporate political giving
By Kevin Drawbaugh
Big business is shoveling more money than ever into U.S. political campaigns, with Wall Street donations way up, a watchdog group said on Tuesday.
The securities and investment industry -- which includes brokerages, hedge funds and private equity firms -- registered the sharpest increase in giving since 2004 among all industry sectors studied by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Record-breaking contributions from the nation's biggest political givers are the result of a wide-open race for the White House and last year's power shift in Congress, said Sheila Krumholz, the nonpartisan center's executive director.
"There is an intensity to the fund raising for 2008 that we've never seen before, which means the candidates and parties will be all the more beholden" to big donors, she said.
The nonprofit center analyzes campaign finance and lobbying records at the Federal Election Commission (FEC), a government agency that enforces U.S. campaign finance law.
The analysis includes contributions to federal candidates and parties from individuals working in an industry and from associated political action committees.
In both presidential and congressional contests, Democrats are benefiting more than Republicans from the surge in business donations, with 57 percent of giving from typical big donors going to Democrats versus 43 percent in 2006 and 2004.
More money is coming in from lawyers than from any other sector, as usual. But the biggest increase in giving since 2004 is coming from financiers, whose donations are up 91 percent.
Steep increases are also coming from the real estate industry, Hollywood, healthcare professionals and insurers....
Wall Street's favorite presidential candidate, based on the latest FEC disclosures from October 29, was Democratic New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. Close behind her in donations from financiers were Republican former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Democratic Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.
Next were Republican former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, Republican Sen. John McCain from Arizona, Democratic former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.
The biggest donors in the securities and investment sector, as of October 29, were the brokerage firms Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse.
Also among the sector's top contributors were hedge funds and private equity firms Bain Capital, SAC Capital Advisers, Fortress Investment Group and Blackstone Group.
"There's no question that hedge funds and private equity firms have ramped up their political giving in the last couple of years as Congress looks seriously at raising their taxes," said Massie Ritsch, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics.
Lawmakers are considering proposals to more than double the tax rate on the "carried interest" gains of senior partners at private equity firms that buy and sell businesses.
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July 10, 1999
Investor Files Suit against Sarasota, Fla.-Based Insurer.
Knight Ridder/Tribune
TAMPA, Fla. -- Riscorp Inc. is only a shell of its former self, but fighting continues over the corporate corpse. The latest salvo comes from an investment group, Chap-Cap Partners L.P., which filed a class-action lawsuit against the Sarasota company Friday.
Riscorp agreed to sell its workers' compensation business to Zenith National Insurance Corp. two years ago -- and Zenith is now operating the business -- but the two companies are battling over how much the final payment will be...
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June 23, 1997
Zenith buys Riscorp for over $35M
Zenith Insurance Co. acquires Riscorp Inc. and its affiliates Riscorp Insurance Co., Riscorp National Insurance Co., Riscorp Property and Casualty Insurance Co. and Third Coast Insurance Co.
National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management
Zenith Insurance Co., a unit of Zenith National Insurance Corp., has agreed to acquire substantially all the operating assets of financially troubled Riscorp Inc. and its affiliates for at least $35 million in cash.
The Woodland Hills, Calif.-based workers' compensation insurance giant also has agreed to enter into an agreement whereby all new and renewal Riscorp policies issued after June 17 will be reinsured by Zenith.
The reinsurance arrangement ends a 50 percent quota-share arrangement Riscorp had with American Re-Insurance Co., Princeton, N.J.
Riscorp, Sarasota, Fla., said the transaction will involve the assets of all its insurance-related subsidiaries, ...
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WANT TO SPOT MORE OF THE BILLIONAIRE CLUBS GETTING BAILED OUT WITH U.S. TAXPAYERS’ DOLLARS???
Barclay’s Global Investors, UK
...with many more to come
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FOR MORE BAILED-OUT BUZZARDS OF A FEATHER, GO TO...
A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING KAMEHAMEHA’S COURT
AIG: THE UN-AMERICAN INSURANCE GROUP
THE BANKRUPTCY BUZZARDS OF ORANGE COUNTY
THE CARLYLE GROUP: BIRDS THAT DRINK FROM CESSPOOLS
CITIGROUP: VAMPIRES IN THE CITY
CONFESSIONS OF A WHISTLEBLOWER
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DIRTY MONEY, DIRTY POLITICS & BISHOP ESTATE
Part I - Part II - Part III - Part IV - Part V - Part VI - Part VII
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LINCOLN FINANCIAL: HONEST ABE THEY AIN’T
MARSH & McLENNAN: THE MARSH BIRDS
MERRILL LYNCH: BEWARE THIS BULL IS FOR THE BIRDS
OFFICE OF U.S. TRUSTEE vs. HARMON
THE EAGLE HOODED: THE 9-11 COVERUP
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THE BANKRUPTCY BUZZARDS OF ORANGE COUNTY
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Originally posted January 17, 2008
Last Updated on April 9, 2009 by The Catbird