Top Marsh execs face criminal charges
AT least four top executives of United- Kingdom based reinsurance firm Marsh have been accused of a criminal violation before the Philippine Department of Justice in a case that has been described as an acid test in protesting the rights of Philippine business online. Legal documents obtained by
The Manila Times show that Giles Wilkinson and Ross Fairweather, both senior vice presidents for Aviation and Aerospace Practice, Timothy Ronald George Blakey, Asia- Pacific regional head for the Aviation and Aerospace Division, and David Charles Jacob, managing director and head of Sales for Marsh AsiaPacific, were charged, together with unspecified defendants, for allegedly disclosing confidential electronic data owned by another party without authorization or consent.
The charges accuse them of violating Section 32 of the Electronic Commerce Law, which states that “any person who obtained access to any electronic key, electronic data message or electronic document, book, register, correspondence, information, or other material pursuant to any powers conferred under this Act, shall not convey to or share the same with any other person.”
If proven guilty, the respondents may be penalized with a maximum fine of P1 million, or six years imprisonment.
According to an eight- page sworn affidavit submitted by Prudential Guarantee and Assurance ( PGA) Inc., the Marsh executives each played a significant role in divulging highly confidential information
( through email) on a number of instances, which ultimately led to PGA losing a key insurance account.
For a period of 19 years, PGA was the direct insurer of Cebu Air Inc., with the former appointing Marsh as its reinsurance broker. As part of their business relationship, PGA shared details of its insurance contract with Cebu Air Inc. with Wilkinson and Fairweather, information which was owned by PGA and covered by their confidentiality agreements.
PGA asserted that one or both of the recipients then forwarded this sensitive data to Blakey, Jacob and other Marsh employees who were neither authorized nor allowed to possess it.
Jacob, accompanied by other Marsh representatives, then allegedly disclosed the same information to the president and CEO of Cebu Air Inc. Lance Gokongwei during a meeting.
Following the meeting between Cebu Air Inc. and Marsh, the airline did not renew its contract with PGA. Instead, it transferred its business to Marsh using a “fronting insurer” arrangement – a practice that is currently being reviewed by the Insurance Commission.
“Simply put, respondents Wilkinson, Fairweather, Blakey, Jacob and others used PGA’s trade secrets and disclosed to Cebu Air, Inc. PGA’s confidential information in order to acquire control of both the direct insurance contract and the reinsurance contract, and at the same time to eliminate PGA as direct insurer,” the affidavit concluded.
In Decembet last year, the Insurance Commission ( IC) conducted a mediation hearing on PGA’s grievance against Marsh, but declined to provide details on how the proceedings went.
PGA filed a formal complaint in October, following accusations that Marsh — which it had formerly tapped as a reinsurance broker — had broken Philippine laws.
The local insurer also asked the IC to consider revoking the license of Marsh’s Philippine unit but the Commission said the matter should follow rules of procedure.