New York Attorney-General Eliot Spitzer has initiated so many prosecutions in the US insurance market that one of the cases has to be delayed because it overlaps another one.

The civil fraud case against former AIG Chairman Maurice “Hank” Greenberg has been delayed 60 days because it may compromise the criminal prosecution of four other former insurance executives involved in reinsurance central to both cases.

Last week New York State Supreme Court Justice Charles Ramos agreed to prosecutors’ request to postpone the questioning of 13 witnesses.

The prosecution says the witnesses will be questioned about three former executives of Berkshire Hathaway’s General Re insurance unit and a former AIG executive.

The judge said he will allow questioning of some of those witnesses on topics other than a General Re transaction that is at issue in the criminal case and in Mr Spitzer’s civil action against Greenberg and former AIG CFO Howard Smith. However, most witnesses won’t be questioned until after the stay is lifted.