Jim Brown To Step Down As La. Commissioner

Michael Ha

NU Online News Service, April 1, 4:09 p.m. EST?Jim Brown, Louisiana's suspended insurance commissioner, will step down this Friday after losing a final appeal of his conviction for lying to an FBI agent about a liquidation deal.

Mr. Brown, who has been suspended from the post since his conviction in October 2000, will officially leave his job this Friday at noon, said Amy Whittington, assistant commissioner, public affairs, for the Louisiana insurance department.

She added that the acting insurance commissioner Robert Wooley will be named the state insurance commissioner. "The current acting commissioner will take over officially this Friday. He's been running the department since October of 2000," Ms. Whittington told National Underwriter.

Mr. Brown was accused of trying to set up a "sweetheart liquidation deal" for the failed Cascade Insurance Company in his state. He was acquitted of the actual crime, but was convicted of lying to an FBI agent about the case, Ms. Whittington explained.

"I don't think Mr. Brown was really surprised about losing the final appeal," she said, "because, from what I understand, the first appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was rejected in January. And the court has now rejected a second request to reconsider its decision."

This fall, Louisiana will hold a statewide election for a full four-year term of the insurance commissioner's post, and Mr. Wooley has announced he will be a candidate for the election, Ms. Whittington said.

Mr. Brown, who is 62, is a veteran of Louisiana politics. Earlier, he had served as a state senator and the secretary of state, and later campaigned unsuccessfully for the governorship in 1987. He was first elected Louisiana's insurance commissioner in 1991 and was re-elected to a second term before his conviction in 2000.

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Jim Brown To Step Down As La. Commissioner

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