CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN COMING SOON!

THE POLICY

Book + Movie + Documentary Project

Ever wondered about the troubles at global insurance giant Lloyd's of London ("LOL" for short) in the 1990s and 2000s? The troubles that brought financial ruin to tens of thousands of small 'unlimited liability' investors and massive insurance shortchanging to American state governments and major corporations?

At last it can be told: the slow, inexorable and then precipitous descent into the biggest insolvency in history — bigger than Enron, WorldCom, Arthur Andersen, Barings, Madoff and all other financial scandals combined.

Due Summer 2027: Clearly and compellingly written by a semi-insider barrister, this unprecedented exposé reveals the horrifying detail: how incompetent, complacent, irresponsible Lloyd's of London, the keystone of world insurance, dug for itself the world's deepest ever financial hole, and then threw its investors and policyholders straight into it.

The true behind-the-scenes story — a nail-biting pot-boiler told for the first time — about:-

the near-collapse of the world's insurance and reinsurance systems at the hands of the bosses and professionals at Lloyd's of London
the near and actual ruin of tens of thousands of unlimited-liability traumatised investors, some of whom killed themselves
the potential ruin of major corporations supposedly insured at Lloyd's for third-party liability claims
the impoverishment of US state and local governments supposedly insured at Lloyd's for environmental etc. claims including clean-up costs
the hosing of other American policyholders who had bought insurance from the great Lloyd's of London in good faith — by claims handlers, run-off agencies and LOL
the gutting and discarding of uncompensated American victims of asbestos, pollution and health hazards
the potential disgracing of eminent specialist lawyers, law firms, judges, regulators, politicians.

The book will show how:-

Lloyd's of London hid and disguised its inner workings from judges, regulators, politicians, lawyers, investors and policyholders. When the shit finally hit the fan, no-one knew how to handle it
in the 1950s and 1960s, Lloyd's of London wrote blank cheques of insurance coverage for American local and state governments, especially for asbestos, pollution and other health hazards, and failed to keep records and accounts while massively recruiting unlimited-liability investors, most patently unsuitable
in the early 1990s, Lloyd's of London announced an apparent epiphany that it was illiquid and insolvent, unable to ever pay all of its insurance and reinsurance claims in full
Lloyd's of London, in a carefully calculated series of ruses, then went about:-
- in the back office, squeezing cash (including by a phony scheme of arrangement called 'Reconstruction and Renewal') from its stunned, misinformed, badly advised, least wealthy investors, some suicidal
- in the front office, imposing "Why don't we just share?" deals (including by a phony scheme of arrangement involving various trusts, and accomplice companies such as Equitas Re) on its alarmed, bewildered, misinformed, badly advised, credulous American corporate policyholders. Only a very few could properly handle LOL's bad-faith claims mishandling and the triple-damages opportunities
- blackmailing pretentious dishonest American specialist corporate-policyholder-side insurance lawyers defrauding, misleading and lying to their own policyholder clients, including on Lloyd's-Equitas fraudulent claims handling
- deceiving and coercing misinformed, badly advised politicians and regulators pretending they knew what was going on and how to deal with it
in a spectacular piece of Establishment chicanery, Lloyd's of London successfully bilked both its investors and its policyholders, thus containing the global insurance and reinsurance crisis that its own greed, stupidity, irresponsibility, incompetence and dishonesty had created.

Explored: the hypothesis that LOL's back-office and front-office self-preservation techniques had been worked out and rehearsed decades in advance at the highest levels of secret government, the judiciary and the insurance insolvency Bar. Though keen to give during the crisis the impression of clueless drift, LOL was thoroughly prepared and ready in every fundamental detail.

Going after its own investors

First, LOL recruited investors on numerous false prospectuses, and then extracted from most of them as MUCH money as it could get away with, in part to partly fund its own unquantifiable and unknown insurance liabilities. Very few investors and very few of their supposedly specialist investment lawyers knew how to handle the situation. No investment regulator assisted them. No politician or government came to the rescue. But some English judges…

Going after its own policyholders

Then LOL went for its own policyholders. Using a sting corporation called Equitas Re, LOL squeezed them for as LITTLE claims money as it could get away with. Very few American corporate policyholders and very few of their supposedly specialist, expensive coverage lawyers, and still fewer insurance judges, knew what was really going on. No insurance regulator knew enough to enlighten them. American policyholders were hosed out of billions of dollars.

Other angles and strategems

Ensuring that no-one at the highest levels of law, regulation and government knew how LOL really worked
Maintaining that its investors were really insurers (few could credibly gainsay it)
Confusing and misinforming regulators, politicians, legislators, journalists, insurance lawyers, insolvency lawyers, specialist textbook writers etc.
Pre-fixing criminal jury trials.

Official documents

The author has accessed, including by Freedom of Information process, official documents revealing how badly "self-regulating" Lloyd's of London was understood, mis-understood, supervised, regulated and managed.

Insider recollections

First-hand accounts from underwriters, claims managers, brokers, lawyers, investors, doctors, coroners, private investigators, widows, policyholders, accountants, insolvency practitioners, corporate counsel, regulators, politicians, legislators, shareholders, victims of asbestosis, air pollution, soil pollution, water pollution and chemical, biological etc. health hazards, etc.

Lawyers and cases

Reported and not-reported English, American and other cases, and the specialist and not-so-specialist lawyers on both sides who fought, won and lost them. 'Deep-discount' confidential 'take it while you can' short-change settlements, etc.

Interviews with INSIDERS: brokers, underwriters, claims handlers, self-regulators: record-keeping; reinsurance; the famous LMX spiral; scandals

The horror stories of American and British INVESTORS: how they were recruited, informed, misinformed, threatened, menaced, traumatised, swindled, impoverished

The liabilities, successes and disappointments of POLICYHOLDERS, including US state and local governments, polluting corporations, etc.

American and English LAWYERS on all sides: exactly what went right and wrong for LOL, investors and policyholders? Where were the real experts?

Interactive Multimedia: simulations, animations, video snippets, conversations, online games (Save The World's Insurance System, sell blank-cheque insurance and don't keep any records, etc.), re-enactments; website; Hunt The Policy; interactive dynamic maps of polluted land, water, etc.

Exhibits: insurance and reinsurance documents of the period; geological surveys of polluted land; lungs of asbestosis victims; accounts of insurance and reinsurance underwriters; reinsurance of his own risks by the original insurer; investor documents; policyholder documents; Equitas documents etc.

Case studies: brokers who sold Lloyd's of London insurance to corporate and official America; underwriters who sold blank-cheque insurance policies and didn't keep records; insurance regulators who didn't regulate; politicians and legislators who didn't pay attention; specialist insurance lawyers who didn't know the subject; real-world victimised regular folk: Erin Brockovich was only as good as the polluter's liability coverage, insured and reinsured (often by the same people) at Lloyd's of London.

The inner workings of Lloyd's of London: the secrecy; the obfuscation; the government connections; the concealments and misrepresentations; the fraud allegations about how Lloyd's recruited deceived, defrauded unlimited-liability Names and mini-Names to pay the unquantifiable liabilities they knew were going to hit at some time…

A gripping true story, told for the first time, of life-and-death failure, greed, incompetence, neglect, pose, pretense, dishonesty, salesmanship and brinkmanship at the highest levels of international business, finance, politics and the law.

The author: Richard J. Astor (now Szrabe) is a retired London barrister (Middle Temple 1982-2009). During the crisis at Lloyd's of London, he:-

wrote the first book specifically on the law relating to Lloyd's of London and its participants (Lloyd's Membership: A Guide to Law and Practice, 1993 etc.)
was professionally retained by Names, Names' action groups and Lloyd's policyholders
was a prominent critic of Lloyd's, Equitas and specialist insurance lawyers on both sides
wrote a further two pioneering law books and numerous technical published articles ('the billion-dollar lawyer-author')
appeared regularly on national TV and radio news
spoke at international conferences and workshops
contributed originally, vocally, uniquely and definitively to demystifying, clarifying and elucidating the inner legalities of Lloyd's and Equitas.

Few if any other lawyers have the credibility and track record to write this book.

This book picks up the author's Slime Street (HarperCollins, 1994).

His other projects presently include:-

BOOK

MOVIE

DOCUMENTARY

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