Manulife – Financial Treason & Crime

Matt Scuffham, 13 October 2018

TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada’s biggest life insurer is under pressure from shareholders to explain why it failed to disclose details of an ongoing court case which came to light after a short-seller released a report detailing the litigation. The stock has dropped 11.5 percent since Muddy Waters Capital LLC said last week that it had taken a short position, compared with a 4.7 percent decline in the stocks in Canada’s financial sector. Muddy Waters cited a court case pending in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan it believes could damage Manulife’s financials. The case against Manulife was filed on Nov. 23, 2016 by Mosten Investment LP, managed by Ontario businessman Michael Hawkins, documents submitted to the court show.
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10/04/201802/25/2021

Article: Manulife clashes with short seller Muddy Waters over lawsuit outcome

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Manulife clashes with short seller Muddy Waters over lawsuit outcome

RJ Dumaual, 04 October 2018

Manulife Financial Corp. rejected a short seller’s statements that the company could lose billions of dollars if it loses a lawsuit concerning a universal life policy issued in the 1990s. Hedge fund Mosten Investment LP sued Manulife, claiming that it should be able to deposit as much capital as it can with the Canadian insurer and reap at least 4% in annual interest due to an insurance contract signed in 1997, Bloomberg News reported.

Muddy Waters Capital LLC disclosed a short position in Manulife and said in a report that the insurer is facing billions in losses, Bloomberg reported. Muddy Waters founder Carson Block expects a verdict in 2018. Holders of the policies were allowed to invest in side accounts with guaranteed rates of up to 4%, according to Canada’s Financial Post. The policies were issued at a time of high interest rates and could be profitable for firms amid a low rate environment.
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09/21/201702/25/2021

Article: TTC suing Manulife for alleged negligence related to benefits fraud scheme

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TTC suing Manulife for alleged negligence related to benefits fraud scheme

The Canadian Press, 21 September 2017

TORONTO — The Toronto Transit Commission is suing Manulife Financial for alleged negligence in connection with a benefits fraud scheme that first came to light three years ago. To date, 170 TTC employees have been dismissed, retired or have resigned to avoid dismissal, and 10 former employees are facing criminal charges for their part in the alleged fraud. In a statement of claim — filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice — the TTC alleges Manulife Financial did not have appropriate fraud management controls in place nor were there systems in place to detect and analyze unusual trends or patterns that might indicate fraud or abuse.
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09/21/201702/25/2021

Article: TTC suing Manulife for up to $5M over failure to spot employee fraud

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TTC suing Manulife for up to $5M over failure to spot employee fraud

NEWS STAFF, 21 September 2017

The TTC is suing Manulife Financial for up to $5 million for failing to spot and stop a large-scale scheme that saw employees allegedly bilk the transit agency with phony benefits claims. An investigation into the allegations of mass fraud are ongoing, but the TTC says so far 170 employees have been fired or resigned. Ten former employees are facing criminal charges in connection with the probe.

The TTC has filed a statement of claim in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice against Manulife. (Read full document below.) The claim alleges Manulife, which provided group benefits for the TTC, represented itself as an industry leader in combating fraud and benefits abuse. It also claimed to have systems in place to detect irregularities and weed out employee fraud.
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07/13/200903/17/2021

Article: Law Firm Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Manulife Financial

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Law Firm Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Manulife Financial

Datamonitor via COMTEX, 13 July 2009

Abbey Spanier Rodd & Abrams has filed a class action lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of a class consisting of all persons or entities who purchased the securities of Manulife Financial between March 28, 2008 and June 22, 2009. The complaint charged Manulife and certain of the company’s executive officers with violations of federal securities laws. On June 19, 2009, after the market closed, Manulife received an enforcement notice from the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) relating to its disclosure of risks concerning its variable annuity guarantee and segregated funds business.
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10/02/200202/25/2021

Article: Manulife lawsuit certified a class action

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Manulife lawsuit certified a class action

JOHN PARTRIDGE, 02 October 2002

A lawsuit alleging that a key unit of Manulife Financial Corp. wrongly excluded thousands of former policy holders in Barbados from payouts worth about $100-million when the company went public in 1999 has been certified as a class action by an Ontario judge.

In a ruling released Monday, Mr. Justice Ian Nordheimer of the Ontario Superior Court said the case “raises an issue” as to whether Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. “actively misled a regulator” about its plans to demutualize or go public when it won approval to sell its Barbadian business in 1996. The action, launched last December on behalf of four representative plaintiffs by Windsor, Ont., lawyer Harvey Strosberg, also raises questions about “the degree, if any, to which a corporation has a duty to protect individuals who have a financial interest” in it “regarding future plans of the corporation,” Judge Nordheimer said.
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08/21/200102/25/2021

Article: Manulife’s Jakarta Unit Could Face Bankruptcy in Policy Claim Dispute

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Manulife’s Jakarta Unit Could Face Bankruptcy in Policy Claim Dispute

Michael SchumanStaff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal, 21 August 2001

JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Indonesian subsidiary of Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. of Canada faces bankruptcy because of one disputed claim, highlighting the desperate need for legal reform by President Megawati Sukarnoputri’s new government.

The beneficiary of a deceased policyholder has filed a bankruptcy claim against the subsidiary at Jakarta’s commercial court and a ruling is expected on Thursday. Manulife refused to pay the beneficiary of the 50 million rupiah ($5,714) policy, claiming that the deceased failed to disclose his health problems when he applied for the policy. The policyholder passed away two years ago. In a strange legal twist, however, the beneficiary and his lawyers, instead of filing a civil complaint against the company, are trying to push Manulife’s subsidiary into bankruptcy if it doesn’t pay the claim plus damages, an amount totaling 5.1 billion rupiah.
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10/21/199602/25/2021

Article: CANADA’S MANULIFE HIT WITH CLASS-ACTION SUIT

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CANADA’S MANULIFE HIT WITH CLASS-ACTION SUIT

ASSOCIATED PRESS, 21 October 1996

A class-action suit has been launched against Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. over its ”vanishing premium” policies. A multimillion-dollar lawsuit has been filed in Ontario Court General Division on behalf of a group of Manulife’s Ontario policyholders. Lawyer Charles Wright said the judge will be asked to establish the suit as a class action, where the claims and rights of many people with common interests are decided in a single-court proceeding. Toronto-based Manulife is already facing class actions in the United States pertaining to vanishing premium policies.

”There are thousands of people behind this suit,” Mr. Wright said. The suit bears the name of Bernard McKrow, 75, of Windsor, Ontario, who alleges he bought a $100,000 vanishing premium policy in 1986 after being told he would only have to make seven premium payments because money earned on the relatively high premiums would cover payments in the future.
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