Jean de Pourtales

Funds controlled by Goldman Sachs have paid $450,000 to settle litigation brought by the Bankruptcy Trustee of Bermuda domiciled ex insurance broker AlphaStar Insurance Group, formerly known as Stirling Cooke Brown Holdings, which collapsed in 2003 after committing a fraud

Goldman Sachs refused to pull the plug on one of the biggest frauds the insurance industry has ever known for fear it would de-rail the 137-year-old investment banker's own $3.66 billion IPO in May, 1999, it has been claimed.The extraordinary allegation appears in a civil complaint that was filed recently in the United States by the Bankruptcy Trustee of Bermuda-based broker AlphaStar Insurance Group Ltd., formerly known as Stirling Cooke Brown Holdings Ltd., and several of its subsidiaries and affiliates.

Despite taking Bermuda-based broker AlphaStar Insurance Group public in a $50 million IPO and being its biggest shareholder during an astonishing crime spree that caused losses estimated at more than $1 billion to the world insurance markets, Goldman Sachs is not accepting any responsibility for what happened.In fact, the actions of its two directors on AlphaStar's board, Reuben Jeffery III and Jean de Pourtales, were “a textbook illustration” of how to govern a company, according to Goldman's motion to dismiss the action on September 15, 2006.

Two months after talks were disclosed in InsideBermuda, AlphaStar Insurance Group Ltd. announced on March 25 that it has agreed to sell three of its subsidiaries for approximately $9 million. AlphaStar, formerly Stirling Cooke Brown Holdings, has entered into a "definitive agreement" with American Insurance Managers Inc., of Atlanta, Georgia.