Michael Butt

Class action law firms in the United States are targeting at least two Bermuda insurers and their officers as a result of Eliot Spitzer's investigation into alleged bid-rigging at broker Marsh & McLennan.At least three separate class actions alleging securities fraud have already been filed against ACE Ltd. and two against AXIS Capital Holdings Ltd. at federal courts in New York and Pennsylvania.

The '2002 World Insurance Forum', which is being held in Bermuda on February 19-22, has announced the participation as speakers of several influential industry businessmen.

Michael Butt, the 55-year-old president and CEO of Bermuda-based reinsurer Mid Ocean Limited, received a financial package worth $7 million in fiscal 1997, according to the company's latest Proxy Statement filing with the SEC.Butt's remuneration comprised $485,000 in salary, $500,000 as a performance bonus, $209,800 in travel and housing allowances, $53,100 in contributions to his pension plan, a profit of $5.31 million from share options he exercised during the year and a further $417,600 in restricted stock awards that were granted in previous years but which vested during fiscal 1997.

Buyers of luxury property in Bermuda in 1997 include John Deuss, Reg Grundy, Britons Michael Butt, David Brown, and Ernest Stempel, First Cayman Bank liquidators defend size of fees, Ken Dart turned down for permanent residency in Cayman Islands, John Tugwell wanted to be Bank of Butterfield's Chairman, as well as CEO, say sources; Bermuda Sun newspaper to start publishing twice a week, Thomas Azzara's 'Tax Havens of the World' book contains several inaccuracies, nearly half of all births in Bermuda in 1996 were out of wedlock.