NEW YORK -- Three former Marsh Inc executives were acquitted on Monday of criminal charges in a bid-rigging and price-fixing scheme in which they were accused of colluding to steer clients to favored insurers.
Joseph Peiser, who led Marsh's excess casualty unit, and brokerage executives Greg Doherty and Kathleen Drake were acquitted by Justice James Yates of the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan of scheming to defraud and antitrust charges, according to Jerry Bernstein, a lawyer for Peiser.
The defendants were among eight former Marsh executives indicted in Sept. 2005 as part of an price-fixing probe conducted by Eliot Spitzer, then the attorney general of New York.
Spitzer accused the executives of colluding with American International Group Inc, units of Ace Ltd and Zurich Financial Services AG, Liberty International Insurance Co and other companies to rig the market for excess casualty insurance from Nov. 1998 to Sept. 2004.
The indictments came after Marsh's parent, New York-based Marsh & McLennan Cos, agreed in January 2005 to pay $850 million to settle related civil charges by Spitzer.
Marsh & McLennan did not face criminal sanctions, and did not admit wrongdoing in settling the civil charges. Peiser and Drake were managing directors at Marsh, while Doherty was a senior vice president, Spitzer had said. Yates heard their case without a jury.
"Peiser should never have been charged," said Bernstein, a partner at Blank Rome LLP. "Just because he was head of global broking in North America, and because some people at Marsh may have done some bad things, does not mean he was guilty."
A spokeswoman for New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, whose office took over the case, did not immediately return a request for comment. Lawyers for the other defendants also did not immediately return calls for comment.
Yates in Feb. 2008 found two other former Marsh managing directors, William Gilman and Edward McNenney, guilty on an antitrust charge in the case, though they were acquitted on other charges.
Bernstein said Peiser was "ecstatic" with Monday's ruling, and intends to return to the insurance industry, after having done some consulting work while the case was pending.
The case is: New York v. Doherty et al. New York State Supreme Court, County of New York.
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