Day: November 10, 2010

Allstate painted (literally) company in a Billion $ Corner – ex rel Sonnier v: FOURTH qui tam Complaint filed against Allstate

And, then there were four – ex rel Rigsby, ex rel Branch Consultants,  ex rel Denenea and, now, ex rel Sonnier v Allstate:

ALLSTATE’s price allowed on wind policy estimates of loss in the State of Louisiana for painting damaged areas was between $0.15 and $0.38 per square foot. However, on NFIP flood policy estimates, ALLSTATE allowed $0.56 per square foot, a difference of between $0.18 and $0.41 per square foot. Thus, if the true and correct cost to repaint flood damaged property was between $0.15 and $0.38 per square foot (i.e., the same cost listed by defendant, ALLSTATE, to paint the same unit of drywall covered under the wind policy issued for the same property by defendant, ALLSTATE, and applicable to the same loss event), ALLSTATE caused the federal government to overpay ALLSTATE between $0.15 and $0.41 for every square foot required to be painted in every NFIP flood policy loss estimate adjusted and initially paid by ALLSTATE but subsequently submitted to the federal government for full reimbursement to ALLSTATE.

Kermith Sonnier, “the Relator is a licensed insurance adjuster with 30 years experience…principal shareholder of Sonnier & Fisher Public Adjusters, LLC, a public adjusting firm based in Lake Charles, Louisiana”.

The allegations in Mr. Sonnier’s recently unsealed qui tam Complaint against Allstate are Plus-Size – over a $1,00o,ooo,000 federal dollars fraudulently by manipulating  multiple costs in claims submitted to the NFIP from multiple disasters in multiple locations over the six year period prior to filing the Complaint under seal on December 10, 2009. Continue reading “Allstate painted (literally) company in a Billion $ Corner – ex rel Sonnier v: FOURTH qui tam Complaint filed against Allstate”

Europeans Seeking Reinsurance Solvency again!

Solvency II is the updated set of regulatory requirements for insurance firms that operate in the European Union.

Based on this new European regime, Aon Benfield  reports in a press release [November 4, 2010]  that the formulas for calculating natural catastrophe capital requirements under the proposed Solvency II Standard Formula are outdated and ignore 15 years of evolution in the field of risk modeling. In response they are offering a suite of services to help re/insurers [game the system] make the most of the catastrophe requirements.

The basic calculation methodology being used under Solvency II overlooks these key aspects of risk and data modeling says Aon:

  • Location granularity (CRESTA zone data is insufficient)
  • No differentiation by occupancy (residential, commercial or industrial) or construction, age and height
  • Single damage function so no differentiation between buildings, contents and business interruption cover
  • No application of limits and deductibles

Unrelated to any of the above, it was released today [November 10. 2010] that:

Andrew Appel, chief operating officer of global broker Aon, will leave the company at year-end.

One should always endeavor to make the innocuous seem conspiratorial.  Of course one might argue that in the someone opaque world of global reinsurance the conspiratorial is at least mundane if not exactly innocuous.

Scruggs: the movie – Wow! northern MS just-us justice up on the big screen!

NEMS360 reports, “Longtime Hollywood insider Sam Haskell….has bought the television and film rights to Curtis Wilkie’s book, “The Fall of the House of Zeus”.

The project, said Haskell publicist Nathan Wells, “has the potential to spur a TV-film industry along in Mississippi, which has been one of Haskell’s goals since returning to Mississippi full time.”

“But for both Wilkie and Haskell, the book and the prospective movie also mean a chance to tell parts of the story that most press accounts could not…The story “has to be about redemption,” he added. “We all make mistakes; this was in the public eye in a way that created a perfect storm for misunderstanding.”

Redemption. Mistakes. Perfect storm for misunderstanding – ohdeargod, those words didn’t sit well with north Mississippi’s black- cloud just-us justice crowd.  Late afternoon, however, Zach Scruggs rained on their parade – and redemption, mistakes, misunderstanding took on a different meaning.

“You know Lackey much better than I, but I don’t believe he was taken aback one whit. If anything, I think he expected Balducci’s Of Counsel “assurances.” Look at the other judges and officers who signed on before Lackey … he didn’t want to be excluded.”

However, the really different meaning to Judge Lackey’s role comes when it’s viewed in light of the Government’s lack of jurisdiction to make a federal case out of the state judges’ position – meaning the Government had no “color of official right” to lend to Lackey.  It was this “color” that made a bribe of what otherwise have been Lackey’s extortion of money from Scruggs.  Without jurisdiction, the government was not just without “color” to lend Lackey, it was also without the authority to obtain a wire tap order and Judge Biggers without the authority to issue same –  and, folks, this “really different meaning” is going to make a great movie! Continue reading “Scruggs: the movie – Wow! northern MS just-us justice up on the big screen!”

Slabbed Mississippi political news miscellany: Drunken domestic abuse edition.

MDOT Executive Director Larry 'Butch" Brown

We’ve covered the ongoing stories of 2 good examples of how not to behave in political hack Scott Walker of Ocean Springs and executive director Butch Brown of MDOT and there is news regarding both men here in the local press we must highlight for the Slabbed Nation.

Let’s begin with Brown, who was found sleeping at a slot machine at the Beau Rivage last July after a hard night of drinking.  More recently he made a king size ass of himself at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials conference held last week at the Beau directing an expletive filled tirade at Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez. The Mississippi Business Journal’s Magnolia Marketplace blog broke the story so it with their coverage we begin as it also adds color to Brown’s July arrest in Biloxi (H/T Yallpolitics):

Back in July, Mississippi Department of Transportation Executive Director Butch Brown attended the meeting of an economic development group at the Beau Rivage on a Thursday night, and got arrested early the next morning for public intoxication and disorderly conduct. Continue reading “Slabbed Mississippi political news miscellany: Drunken domestic abuse edition.”