Resource Underwriters

The potential embarrassment that Bermuda avoided by not granting a license to Robin Spencer-Arscott's Resource Underwriters in 1997 has been hammered home by an SEC lawsuit filed in the United States.The man whom Spencer-Arscott claimed was providing Resource's $30 million start-up capital, New York State-based Steven Blumhagen, has been accused of masterminding a $12 million investment fraud.Steven D. Blumhagen and his wife, Susan, who are both 50, are defendants in a civil lawsuit filed last year at the United States District Court for the Western District of New York.

Was Buffalo-based businessman Steven Blumhagen really the source of $30 million that was to have been the start-up capital of Resource Underwriters, as the company's Bermudian front-man, Robin Spencer-Arscott, would have us believe? Highly unlikely, we can report. Unless, that is, 46-year-old Blumhagen has recently won the New York state lottery and checked the ‘no publicity' box.

An application to incorporate Resource Underwriters, the proposed $300 million reinsurer fronted by Robin Spencer-Arscott, appears to have been turned down by Bermuda's regulators.The Admissions Committee of the Insurance Advisory Committee met on November 7 to determine the fate of the company, said sources.

Concerns about the credibility of some of the people involved are holding up the formation in Bermuda of Resource Underwriters, a new $300 million reinsurer whose front-man is Robin Spencer-Arscott.

Robin Spencer-Arscott, who lost his position as chairman of Aon Re and Aon Risk Services in Bermuda after Aon's acquisition of Alexander & Alexander, is believed to be close to setting up a new $300-$400 million reinsurer in Bermuda.Details of the new reinsurer have not been announced but Spencer-Arscott has been telling insurance people that he hopes to have the company up and running by the Rendezvous de Septembre gathering in Monte Carlo next month.