"AMSTERDAM/MEXICO CITY, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Dutch insurer ING expressed amazement on Friday that a judge had frozen its Mexican unit's bank accounts and ordered the arrest of managers amid a legal row with a local mining firm."
That's the kind of actions I'd like to see by American judges!
There should be a law requiring insurers to pay whatever their offer is IMMEDIATELY. They always make these low offers, hoping that the insured NEEDS the money and HAS to settle.
UPDATE - Mexican judge freezes ING funds, arrests managers
http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/030829/financial_ing_mexico_5.html
Friday August 29, 2:02 pm ET
By Melanie Cheary and Alistair Bell
(Updates with detail paragraph 2, ING comment 4, ADR price 10)
AMSTERDAM/MEXICO CITY, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Dutch insurer ING (Amsterdam:ING.AS - News; NYSE:ING - News) expressed amazement on Friday that a judge had frozen its Mexican unit's bank accounts and ordered the arrest of managers amid a legal row with a local mining firm.
A judge in the southern Mexican state of Morelos blocked the bank accounts of leading Mexican insurance company ING Comercial America up to a limit of $300 million, the latest move in a legal dispute with local mining company Grupo Fertinal.
"We are highly astonished by these legal procedures. It's different to what is usual in the international business environment," said Dailah Nihot, spokeswoman for ING, Europe's fourth-biggest insurer by premium income. "An arrest warrant has been issued for a number of managers."
Nihot said ING has made arrangements to provide cash flow to cover all of its obligations in Mexico, including claims and payroll.
Analysts were equally surprised by the judge's actions.
"It looks very drastic and it's very difficult from the Netherlands to assess something like this. This seems a bizarre situation. A whole business can't really be run without its accounts," said Bank Oyens & van Eeghen analyst Ivo Geijsen.
ING Comercial America, with about $5 billion in assets under management, is being sued for $300 million by Fertinal, which claims ING failed to pay out after the Mexican company's installations were damaged in a 2001 hurricane.
Nihot said it was normal in the insurance business for there to be a dispute over the size of a claim and a neutral party was regularly asked to mediate. She said the Dutch group was surprised that the issue had been taken to a criminal court.
"We have always said we are able and committed to paying the claim. The claim was not on issue. The amount is still being settled," Nihot said.
ING's American Depositary Receipt (ADR) traded off 11 cents or less than 1 percent at $19.60 in New York in afternoon dealings. (Additional reporting by Noel Randewich)