Executive Life Insurance Co

California insurance regulators Thursday accused former officials and associates of failed Executive Life Insurance Co. of fraud in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit that seeks reimbursement of losses for policyholders. The suit accuses Fred Carr, the former chief executive of Executive Life, and Michael Milken, the convicted Drexel Burnham Lambert junk bond trader, of fraud, misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty and other wrongdoing that led to the firm's collapse in April.

Prompted by a recent setback in the California Supreme Court, Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi is trying to negotiate a settlement of the massive Executive Life Insurance Co. case, which has been in litigation since Garamendi seized the company in April, 1991.

A group of municipal bondholders said Thursday that they will try to derail the proposed acquisition of the failed Executive Life Insurance Co. by a French consortium unless their claims for $1.8 billion are honored. The investors bought bonds issued by dozens of public agencies for projects such as housing projects or farm loans. The municipal agencies in turn invested the money in guaranteed investment contracts, or muni-GICs, issued by Executive Life.

The ante for Executive Life Insurance Co., the giant Los Angeles-based company that failed last April, jumped again Tuesday as the National Organization of Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Assns. unveiled a new, higher bid. NOLHGA, which represents 47 state-run life insurance guaranty funds, says it will initially credit policyholders with 89 cents per dollar invested.

A top Labor Department official Thursday warned companies that replaced their pension plans with annuities from Executive Life Insurance Co. to make up losses suffered by their retirees or face possible investigations and lawsuits by the federal government. In his toughest comments yet on the issue, Assistant Secretary of Labor David G.

The apparent winning bid by a group of state insurance guaranty funds for Executive Life Insurance Co. reflects the industry's efforts to slash its tab for cleaning up the mess by an estimated $800 million and earn some much-needed confidence from the public, regulators and politicians. The bid by the National Organization of Life and Health Guaranty Assns.

Much of the remaining opposition to the rehabilitation plan for Executive Life Insurance Co. melted away Wednesday, as three groups of policyholders accepted a sweetened settlement deal from the French investment group that intends to take over the failed Los Angeles insurer. Two of the settlements were reached quietly in private--the third amid public acrimony--on the first day of a Los Angeles Superior Court hearing on the fate of Executive Life.

One by one, they came forward Thursday to tell their stories of loss, hardship and shattered trust: A woman worried about caring for her retarded child; a man concerned about supporting his family; a recent widow who could no longer pay her rent. They were among about 400 individuals--policyholders, annuitants, attorneys and pension fund managers with an interest in failed Executive Life Insurance Co.--who appeared at a Los Angeles hearing presided over by Superior Court Judge Kurt J. Lewin.

A wide majority of policyholders of the failed Executive Life Insurance Co. have opted to remain with the insurer's successor firm, a result that state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi on Wednesday called "a tremendous vote of confidence" in his rehabilitation plan for Executive Life, which he seized as insolvent in April, 1991. However, a number of policyholders are disgruntled with the way the plan treats them and say that Garamendi and officials of Aurora National Life Assurance Co.

California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi's plan for rehabilitating Executive Life Insurance Co. was dealt a huge blow Monday when a state appellate court threw out several parts of his proposal. The decision marked a major victory for big investors holding so-called municipal guaranteed investment contracts.