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Cosmopolitan Life Still Owed Over $55K in Partners Commissions

2 min read

Ever since state Insurance Commissioner Jay Bradford became the receiver for Cosmopolitan Life Insurance Co. in 2009, he’s been trying to recoup some of the thousands of dollars the Little Rock company lost as it spiraled into insolvency.

A suit filed in May in Pulaski County Circuit Court shows that he’s now seeking more than $50,000 from an insurance company that once partnered with Cosmopolitan.

According to the suit, in 2007 Cosmopolitan entered an agreement with Advanced Insurance Group of America and Partners Insurance LLC of Little Rock where those companies would sell Cosmopolitan’s Employers Choice Health Plan product.

Under the agreement, Cosmopolitan would advance commissions to Partners Insurance. In practice, the suit said, Cosmopolitan, rather than Advance Insurance Group, paid the advances to Partners Insurance, and Partners Insurance in turn agreed to repay them.

In 2009, following Cosmopolitan’s disintegration, Partners Insurance owed $62,861 to Cosmopolitan. In June 2009, it made a payment of $7,263, but hasn’t responded to further demands.

Bradford is seeking the outstanding $55,597 plus legal fees.

Calls left at the Partners office in Little Rock were not returned by press time.

Cosmopolitan’s former president, John Mathis “Matt” Lile III, was indicted by a federal grand jury in April on two counts of embezzlement.

His trial is currently scheduled to start Nov. 12 before U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright.

Lile, owner of Lulav restaurant in Little Rock, had hoped to be in Israel this week to participate in the Maccabi USA Mission Program. He had bought a $3,950 airline ticket and everything. But U.S. Magistrate Beth Deere denied his request to return the passport that he was ordered to surrender when he pleaded not guilty.

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