A 2006 report from the office of Congressman Michael Oxley regarding the battle between now-bankrupt title insurer LandAmerica and Commissioner Toll can be found here. The executive summary of the report states:
According to documents made available to the Committee on Financial Services, LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc. allegedly engaged in a deliberate effort to negatively influence state and federal examinations into the company’s captive title reinsurance agreements. Senior company management, including CEO Ted Chandler and General Counsel Michelle Gluck, in internal correspondence, authorized LandAmerica Senior Vice President Peter Kolbe to use personal background information obtained on Colorado Deputy Commissioner Erin Toll to raise conflict of interest charges in an effort to limit her investigation into LandAmerica’s Colorado operations, undermine her efforts to lead a multi-state settlement on captive reinsurance, and, in the opinion of Ms. Toll, to discourage her from testifying at a hearing before a subcommittee of the Committee. The company had personal information regarding Ms. Toll’s family background and relationships and raised it with several other state insurance regulators, threatening to “go public” and get “real stinky real quick” if Ms. Toll continued her efforts. The company’s officials also used their contacts in state insurance departments and at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to obtain information about, and reduce support for, Ms. Toll’s negotiations towards a multi-state settlement, and to remove her from the process.
The investigative report that follows includes a lot of internal LandAmerica email correspondence and correspondence with regulators, which clearly demonstrate how LandAmerica tried to play hardball with a tough regulator. Land America's conduct comes off looking more than a bit Nixonian.
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