Criminals

St. Paul Travelers Building

I just got a check in the mail for $29.28. It is my share of the proceeds from a lawsuit against St. Paul Travelers (Insurance Corporation, I imagine). The net proceeds from this lawsuit was $53 million against claimed losses of $737 million. Evidently at one time I had some shares of this stock in my retirement fund, which means I got to sign on to a class action lawsuit. Probably required no action on my part other than sitting tight and not making a fuss (no, I'm not gonna be part of no common class action lawsuit! I'm gonna file my own suit! I'll show those no good so and soes!)

So me and the other 123,588 claimants recovered 6.7% of our losses, losses I was not even aware of. I imagine the lawyers all collected several million dollars each, which made the ten years (five years? six months? 3 minutes?) they spent on this case worthwhile.

This sort of thing happens once or twice a year. Occasionally I will look into it a bit, just out of curiosity, and generally what I find is that once upon a time someone told a big fat lie. What the heck is the matter with people? Why do they do stuff like that? Probably because it will help divert large sums of money into their pockets and they don't think they will get caught. And given the amount of time and effort it takes to take down even one of these lying scumbags, a lot of them probably get away with it.

From a statement from the law firm that prosecuted this claim:

St. Paul II arose from the industry-wide insurance scandal involving American International Group, Marsh McClennan, the St. Paul Companies and numerous other insurance providers and brokers. Investigations involved charges that the insurance industry had formed a cartel, through bid rigging, kick backs and the payment of illegal contingent commissions, resulting in higher premiums to customers, and illegally earned revenues for the cartel’s participants. St. Paul’s alleged participation in this cartel, and its misuse of finite insurance, has lead to approximately 22 investigations, including a formal SEC investigation, and an in-depth investigation by the Office of the Attorney General for the State of New York.

And you know, we don't really know if they did anything wrong. Given the obfuscation factor of accounting practices and the law, it could be just that some legal beagle discovered someone had forgotten to cross a T, and realized they could make it into a hanging offense. On the other hand a million bucks isn't what it used to be. Small potatoes like this might not be worth the trouble involved in corrupting the legal system. Now a billion dollars, that might make it worthwhile.

All this fuss and I get a check that will cover lunch for two at the Road House. Geez, prices have gone up (no Shinola Sherlock). Ten years ago I used to get lunch for $5 at the Happy Panda. Now lunch costs $10, plus $2 for iced tea. We should go back to the Panda.

Update January 2017 replaced missing picture.