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Industry | Insurance |
---|---|
Defunct | 1991 |
Fate | Collapse |
Headquarters | Jacksonville, Florida |
Key people | Mark Sanford William Blackburn |
Guarantee Security Life Insurance Company, or GSLIC, represented one of the most severe cases of insurance fraud in Florida history. According to the Florida Insurance Commissioner:
[GSLIC] was, almost from the beginning, a massive fraud, aided and abetted by blue-ribbon brokers and licensed professionals motivated by their own self-interest. The fraud at Guaranteed Security was a carefully orchestrated bank robbery. But the thieves disguised themselves with the help of accountants and brokers and lawyers rather than wearing silk-stocking masks.
The allegations by Florida insurance regulators against accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand ultimately led to a $4.5 million settlement.[1] The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission found that Merrill Lynch "failed to properly record the terms and conditions of certain transactions which involved the sale and repurchase of certain securities" and ordered that Merrill adopt procedures and controls to ensure compliance with the SEC's book's and record provisions and "cease and desist" from committing future violations.[2] A $100 million settlement was reached between the Florida Department of Insurance and firms associated with the 1991 collapse of GSLIC.[3]