Insurance price-fixing suspected
Attorney general seeks incriminating documents
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Bill Bush
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Attorney General Marc Dann is after documents that he thinks will show that the nation’s largest insurance brokerage fixed prices to cheat Ohio employers.
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To show why the documents are needed, Dann attached to his filing e-mails from 2003 that show Marsh asking for a "fake ‘B’ quote" and "an unattractive premium ... that won’t sell" to fix prices on insurance bids for at least two Ohio companies.
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Companies involved in price-fixing agree not to compete on price, instead often splitting up their clients and collecting larger profits. Their clients end up paying more, and the higher costs ultimately are passed on to employees or the general public.
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Under the subject line "Diebold — Primary Pricing," another 2003 e-mail from Marsh to Zurich says: "I need a fake ‘B’ quote on the lead. The lead is expiring for $1,050,000. … AIG will be keeping this lead. … Please quote higher than this or decline."
Mike Jacobsen, a spokesman for Diebold, said yesterday he couldn’t immediately comment on whether the company knew that it might be the victim of price-fixing. Diebold, based in Canton, makes ATMs and electronic-voting machines.
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2007/02/27/20070227-A1-01.html