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The Hartford, which no longer sells reinsurance, has been cooperating with Blumenthal's broader investigation, advancing the attorney general's 2007 suit against Guy Carpenter & Co., a New York-based division of Marsh & McLennan that he describes as "the ringleader" of the decades-long conspiracy.
The Hartford's cooperation is helping to expose "a series of illegal price-fixing conspiracies that inflated insurance costs by hundreds of millions of dollars nationwide at the expense of 170 insurance companies and their customers," Blumenthal said in announcing the settlement, to be paid into the state's general fund.
Reinsurance is basically insurance for insurance companies, often to cover huge claims.
Blumenthal said The Hartford participated in "several of the conspiracies" from 1986 to 2001 through a former unit called Hart Re Company. The Hartford was one of "countless other co-conspirators" that paid Guy Carpenter "excessive fees and other benefits" in exchange for business it allegedly steered to them, he said.
"The Hartford helped Guy Carpenter create an illusion of competition," he said.
The Hartford maintained that its "participation in the reinsurance facilities was lawful" but said in a statement that it was "pleased" to reach a deal.
"We settled to avoid the costs of litigating with the attorney general over a business that The Hartford exited years ago," said the statement.
Guy Carpenter did not respond to a request for comment.
In his 2007 suit against Guy Carpenter, filed in Hartford Superior Court, Blumenthal alleged that the company conspired over decades with more than 20 other reinsurers to fix prices, set terms and shut out competition, inflating costs for insurance companies and consumers nationwide. Blumenthal said The Hartford's cooperation has led to additional allegations against Guy Carpenter.
Blumenthal said a trial is tentatively scheduled for September 2012.
Meanwhile, he said, "We may take action against other companies or other companies may decide to settle."
To see more of The Hartford Courant, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.courant.com/. Copyright (c) 2009, The Hartford Courant, Conn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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