3 former Marsh executives acquitted of bid-rigging

[October 27, 2009]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Three former executives of insurance broker Marsh Inc. were acquitted Monday of bid-rigging, price-fixing and other charges following an 11-month trial in Manhattan.

Attorney Jerry Bernstein said his client, Joseph Peiser, former head of excess casualty at Marsh, and two subordinates were acquitted in a bench trial by State Supreme Court Judge James Yates.

Peiser, Greg Doherty and Kathleen Drake were indicted in 2005 by then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. The defendants were among eight former Marsh executives accused of colluding with brokers at American International Group Inc. and other major insurance companies to arrange noncompetitive bids for corporate customers.

Bernstein said Monday that Peiser feels "ecstatic and vindicated."

Attorneys for Doherty and Drake didn't immediately respond for a request for comment. A spokesman for the office of the current New York AG, Andrew Cuomo, couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

Peiser and Doherty had faced a maximum sentence of 25 years in state prison if convicted. Drake faced a maximum of 15 years in prison.

The 2005 indictments came after Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc., which owns Marsh Inc., agreed to pay $850 million in restitution to end a civil lawsuit brought by Spitzer, who accused the company of bid-rigging. New York-based Marsh & McLennan denied any wrongdoing in agreeing to the settlement. The broker also agreed in May of this year to pay $2.4 million to the state of Connecticut to settle claims of bid rigging, price fixing and receiving kickbacks.

AIG last year agreed to pay nine states and the District of Columbia $12.5 million to resolve charges that some of the company's subsidiaries participated in an intricate bid rigging scheme with Marsh & McLennan and other insurance brokers that led to policyholders being overcharged.

In February, former Marsh executives William Gilman and Edward J. McNenney were found guilty of an antitrust charge but acquitted of other charges; two more executives still are awaiting trial, The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site Monday.

[Associated Press]

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