Eton Management

A United States based broker who has been active in the onshore and offshore insurance markets for many years has pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud.Martin Hoffman changed his plea from not guilty to guilty on one count

A broker who once threatened to sue OffshoreAlert for libel and who has been active in the Bermuda market has been indicted for allegedly defrauding the Clarendon Insurance Group of $9 million and causing it $20 million of losses from

InsideBermuda continues this month with the third installment of our in-depth interview with New York-based businessman Martin Hoffman, who has attracted his fair share of publicity since he entered the insurance industry in the 1960s and has been an active participant in the Bermuda market.

American businessman Martin Hoffman has attracted his fair share of publicity in his long career in the insurance industry, which began in the 1960s and has covered markets in the United States, the UK, Bermuda and around the world. Over the next few editions, Inside Bermuda will serialize a comprehensive interview that we conducted with Hoffman in which he addresses several controversial incidents that he has been linked with, including the collapse of US firms Kenilworth Insurance and Cadillac Insurance and the operations of Barbados-based Towers International Re/Knightsbridge International Re. Since December of 1994, Hoffman has been the President of New York-based Eton Management Corporation, which is engaged in a broad range of insurance and reinsurance activities, including the management of an International Marine and Property Program. Prior to founding Eton Management, he ran MIH Consultants, which provided consulting, administrative, software development and processing for small and medium-sized insurance companies and agents. Early in his career, Hoffman was hired to head the Reinsurance Audit Staff at Norman Reitman & Company, an international insurance accounting firm specializing in reinsurance and CIGNA British Companies and Bermuda Reinsurers. After he left Norman Reitman & Company, Hoffman was retained by a London brokerage firm where he was responsible for all accounting activities related to the brokerage firm's business underwritten by production sources in the United States on behalf of Lloyd's of London.

The Clarendon Insurance Group has terminated a substantial business production agreement with New York-based Eton Management, which is run by notorious businessman Martin Hoffman.

Further allegations of wrongdoing against entities involving Clarendon Insurance Group Managing General Agent Martin Hoffman and Clarendon itself are contained in two US lawsuits currently awaiting trial. Both actions were filed at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York by the administrators of Qualis Care L. P., which is currently in bankruptcy.

Clarendon National Insurance Company, Eton Management and Martin Hoffman have all been named as defendants in a lawsuit filed on June 15, 1998 in New York Southern Bankruptcy Court by Qualis Care LP, an entity owned by Hoffman that is currently in administration. Last year, the same plaintiff brought an action in the same court against Hoffman's Barbados-based Knightsbridge International Reinsurance company: a case that is currently awaiting trial.

A lawsuit filed three years ago in New York is revealing in that it includes details of another business deal involving Martin Hoffman that ended in tears amid allegations of fraud and dishonesty and shows a link between Hoffman, the Bermuda/US-based Clarendon insurance group and Bermuda insurance consultant Robin Spencer-Arscott.

Anyone doing business with the Clarendon Insurance Group should take a close look at further evidence we have obtained which clearly shows that either a senior officer of the group is lying about its relationship with a dubious business producer or the producer is submitting fraudulent documents to the London insurance market. Either way, the Clarendon officer who may have lied to us, Thomas Corteville, vice president/financial operations of Clarendon National Insurance Company, seemed more concerned with attacking this newsletter than analyzing the facts.

Letter to the Editor of OffshoreAlert from Thomas Corteville, of Clarendon Insurance Group.

Rating agencies who have ‘A' rated the Clarendon Insurance Group, which has companies in the US and Bermuda, might want to take a close look at some of the third-party insurers who are producing business on the group's behalf.Of particular interest should be the business production relationships Clarendon has with New York-based Eton Management and Deep South Surplus General Agency, which is headquartered in Las Colinas, in the Dallas area.