State regulators in New Jersey and Delaware raised questions about stock ownership and disclosure at two subsidiaries of Toronto-based insurance giant Fairfax Financial in 2005, according to documents reviewed by The Post.
As part of a routine examination, Delaware insurance examiners also noted a Fairfax request made to Securities and Exchange Commission investigators last June to seal terms of a deal between it and Berkshire Hathaway’s General Re division.
The examiners said Fairfax received an SEC subpoena in the agency’s broad investigation of so-called finite reinsurance on June 20, 2005, and disclosed it on June 24. SEC investigators continue to expand their investigation into General Re’s insurance deals, with two more companies receiving subpoenas last week.
Meanwhile, New Jersey insurance examiners said Hamblin Watsa Investment Counsel, an investment manager owned by Fairfax founder and Chief Executive V. Prem Watsa, had more than 5 percent of its investments for the company in assets considered “not permitted or qualifying.”
The Delaware report took issue with the Hamblin Watsa Asia Fund, saying the regulatory capital of a Fairfax subsidiary, Fairmont Specialty Insurance, was affected by a large investment in the Mauritius-based money manager. Fairmont sold its $4.19 million stake in the fund.
Delaware state investigators also recommended the company address other concerns including a failure to fully disclose its directors’ conflicts of interest, not obeying rules on “material transactions with affiliates,” not having the correct number of directors, and not keeping track of its stockholders.
A Fairfax spokesman said examiners’ recommendations for Fairmont and another subsidiary, North River, have been “reviewed and addressed” and that “the relatively few recommendations” made by both examiners “reflect positively” on the company.
“Anything you see in a report, we take pretty seriously,” Delaware’s Deputy Insurance Commissioner Mike Vild told The Post. Fairmont was examined as part of a three-year exam cycle, he added.
Separately, Fairfax’s Crum and Forster unit has postponed its earnings statement, not restated its earnings, as The Post previously reported.