FSA hands life ban to insurance executives
The UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) has given three London insurance executives lifetime bans for conspiring to defraud QBE Europe and other companies of £2 million ($3.46 million).
Timothy Higgins, Clifford Felstead and Ralph Brunswick were banned last week from working in financial services following their conviction in the High Court in 2008 for defrauding Markel International Insurance Company, QBE Europe and Amalfi Underwriting.
Mr Higgins was a director and founder of Surety Guarantee Consultants (SGC), established in 2005 to write surety bonds. He and Mr Felstead, a manager at SGC who was previously convicted on fraud charges, wrote business that exceeded authorised limits, exposing Markel and QBE to greater liabilities than agreed.
By exceeding these limits, SGC pocketed more than £2 million in secret profits that should have been paid to the insurers.
During an audit of SGC, Mr Brunswick assisted Mr Higgins and Mr Brunswick to conceal the fraud by providing false documents in the name of an Isle of Man company, where he worked at the time.
“All three of these men fell woefully short of the standards expected of them,” FSA director of enforcement and financial crime Margaret Cole said.