-->Hi,
dazu die NYT heute (Auszüge):
Once Again, Spitzer Follows E-Mail Trail
Several years ago, the manager of a big insurance company received an odd request from a counterpart at Marsh & McLennan Companies, the world's largest insurance broker.
The Marsh executive asked the insurance company in an e-mail message to send someone to a meeting to pretend to make a bid for an insurance policy being sought by a customer - even though Marsh had already decided to steer the business to another insurer that agreed to pay a kickback to Marsh.
The e-mail message - written in 2001 and disclosed last week as part of a New York State lawsuit asserting that Marsh Inc., a unit of Marsh & McLennan, cheated customers - even made a joke about creating an illusion of competition.
(...)
The manager from the other company, whose name had also been blacked out in the documents, evidently did not find bid rigging quite so funny.
(...)
The e-mail exchange is one of numerous potentially embarrassing communications that were disclosed by Eliot Spitzer, the New York State attorney general, who used similarly damaging e-mail messages to help press his successful conflict-of-interest investigation of Wall Street analysts two years ago. The accusations against Marsh also assert there was a conflict of interest in its role as a broker.
(...)
The latest foray by Mr. Spitzer, who said that his investigation into what he called "widespread corruption" was still in its early stages, is already getting results. In the wake of the lawsuit, Marsh said on Friday that it would immediately stop the longstanding practice of accepting the lucrative payments, which the industry calls incentive fees but critics contend are kickbacks. Marsh received $800 million in incentive fee payments in 2003.
[Na, da dämmern saftige Rückstellungen herauf...]
In addition to the civil suit against Marsh, two executives at the American International Group, one of the world's largest insurers, and a manager at Ace Ltd., another big insurer, pleaded guilty last week to criminal charges for helping Marsh rig bids.
(...)
Marsh's stock has fallen sharply since the suit was filed on Thursday. The shares fell to $29.20 a share, down $5.65, on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, after plunging $11.28 a share on Thursday, for a two-day decline of 37 percent.
[Traumshorts...]
Maurice R. Greenberg, the chief executive of A.I.G., said in a conference call on Friday that it was likely that his company would also stop making incentive payments to brokers. A.I.G. shares fell $2.15, or 3.6 percent, to $57.85 on the Big Board on Friday.
[Dito]
Ace said yesterday that it also would no longer pay brokers' fees known as placement service agreements, or P.S.A.'s, for steering business toward the company.
[Tja, wieder eine schöne Geschäftsidee auf'n Müll].
Und wie schaut's eigentlich in Euroland oder so aus?
Gruß!
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