W.R. Berkley Fee Payment Slammed

Mr. Rowland's activities were termed questionable by J. Robert Hunter, director of insurance for the Washington, D.C.-based Consumer Federation of America.

Gov. Rowland's financial statement shows that in 2003, his wife, Patricia, was invited by W. R. Berkley to speak at a conference in Key Largo, Fla., about life in a political family and was paid $15,000 as the speaking fee.

Earlier, between 1997 and 2001?when Mr. Rowland was serving his second term as the governor?a unit of W. R. Berkley had received a state contract worth $22.8 million that involved administering workers' compensation claims.

The statement of financial interest filing also shows that the governor accompanied his wife during last year's Berkley conference. He addressed the audience after his wife's speech and held a question-and-answer session.

In addition to the $15,000 fee deposited into Ms. Rowland's personal bank account the day after her speech, W. R. Berkley paid all the couple's expenses during the trip.

Currently, a Connecticut House committee member as well as federal investigators are examining documents to determine whether there might be any link between any of the gifts the governor has received while in office and the awarding of state contracts.

Commenting on the case, a W. R. Berkley representative told National Underwriter that there is no conflict whatsoever since the state contract that W. R. Berkley had received was from many years ago and the company currently is not involved in any state-contract work.

A spokesperson from Gov. Rowland's office told NU that this case is not at all unusual since Ms. Rowland often gives speeches for fees. The spokesperson declined to comment on how much Ms. Rowland would usually command for her speeches.

However, Mr. Hunter blasted the payment made to Ms. Rowland, arguing that such cases truly undermine public credibility and trust.

"It always raises questions whenever there is money going in two directions," Mr. Hunter said, pointing out that the contract W.R. Berkley received between 1997 and 2001 was a substantial one.

"Florida is one of the sites where state officials tend to get wined and dined?anything that presents this sort of appearance of conflict undermines the public credibility," Mr. Hunter said, adding that this clearly raises the issue of quid pro quo.

But as offensive as this case may be, it's far from unusual, he said. "Every so often, you hear about something that raises eyebrows, where some state officials or insurance regulators engage in activities that have the appearance of conflict."

Mr. Hunter said a blatant example that occurred a few years ago involved Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John Oxendine, who was "wined and dined" by the National Council on Compensation Insurance and was given a lavish two-week all-expenses-paid trip to Florida. "It became a big brouhaha in Georgia back then," Mr. Hunter recalled.

In the case of former California Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush, insurers were found out to have escaped paying substantial fines levied by the commissioner by donating to a private foundation that Mr. Quackenbush had controlled. "That ended up being a big problem and the commissioner had to resign and even flee the state."

And then there is Louisiana, where a number of insurance commissioners had been convicted and were sent to prison for various criminal offenses. "So there are periodically these occurrences?sometimes these go beyond just public outrage and end up in criminal procedures."