An insurance conglomerate has sued Alliance Insurance Group of Arkadelphia and its owner, Berry R. Bishop, pushing the total value of claims filed against Alliance and Bishop to more than $3 million since their licenses were suspended on April 17.
Acadia Insurance Co., Continental Western Insurance Co. and Union Insurance Co. — all units of W. R. Berkley Corp. of Greenwich, Connecticut — filed a complaint Monday in U.S. District Court in Hot Springs, where Alliance had an office. The insurers are jointly seeking more than $670,000 in premiums collected from customers but not forwarded to the carriers.
The lawsuit references the emergency license suspension order in which state Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr said Bishop and Alliance couldn’t account for some $1.7 million in premium collected.
The Berkley companies are the first insurance carriers to sue over the unremitted premium. The Bank of Prescott has sued Bishop and Alliance over more than $2.1 million in loans secured by what are believed to be fraudulent insurance policies.
Citizens Bank of Batesville has sued to collect on two loans totaling $250,000. They were secured by stock in a company that owned Bishop’s insurance offices in Arkadelphia and Prescott, but that real estate turned out to be mortgaged to Bank of the Ozarks.
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