OTHER NEWS - Oct. 18, 1991

Shaky Insurance Companies Using Borrowed Securities: More than a dozen financially shaky insurance companies are being propped up by claiming ownership of high-grade government securities that are borrowed or nonexistent, Senate investigators have reported. “The ultimate victim is the unassuming consumer who, seeking an insurance policy from a solid company, buys it from an insurance company flirting with insolvency,” investigators Mark Webster and Eleni Pryles told the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations, which has been looking into various types of fraud in the insurance industry. The FBI has been drawn into the probe and has investigations under way in eight field offices.