Spitzer saw enough during the AIG inquiry to taint General Re and Berkshire...Here comes Spitzer Warren!

Date:   8/8/2005 9:02:13 AM ( 19 y ago)

NEW YORK, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKa.N: Quote, Profile, Research) (BRKb.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which is run by billionaire Warren Buffett, said on Friday the chief executive of a British unit of the company's General Re Corp. reinsurance subsidiary has been fired.

Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire said the executive, Milan Vukelic, was terminated in July, two months after he was placed on administrative leave.

Vukelic had been chief executive of Faraday Group, a unit of General Re. He previously ran General Re's international finite reinsurance business unit.

Berkshire disclosed the firing in its quarterly report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Vukelic could not immediately be located, and his biography has been removed from Faraday's Web site. Berkshire was not immediately available for comment.

Vukelic's departure is the latest amid several accounting probes involving General Re.

Two former General Re executives, John Houldsworth and Richard Napier, in June pleaded guilty to charges that they helped American International Group Inc. (AIG.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the insurer, misstate financial results. They were also fired.

Investigators in several jurisdictions are examining whether General Re helped some clients use non-traditional insurance to improperly smooth earnings.

Berkshire has said it is cooperating with the probes.

Also in the quarterly report, Berkshire said another General Re unit is providing information and cooperating with the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Canada as it inquires into "finite reinsurance."

Among the other regulators examining various Berkshire units are U.S. prosecutors, the SEC, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, and regulators in Australia, Germany and Ireland.



 

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