New York Supreme Court Judge James A. Yates has thrown out the2008 convictions of two former executives of Marsh on felonymonopoly charges for accepting contingent commission kickbacks.

William Gilman (a former executive marketing director andmanaging director at Marsh) and Edward McNenney (the brokerage'sformer Global Placement Excess Casualty director and managingdirector) were convicted after an 11-month nonjury trial beforeJudge Yates. The pair was sentenced to 90 days in jail and fiveyears probation for restraint of trade, but their sentences werestayed pending appeals.

Judge Yates cited “newly discovered contradictory evidence,” aswell as the suppression of documents that would have been“invaluable” to the defense, which he said “undermines the court'sconfidence in the verdict.”

The cases grew out of an investigation by former New YorkAttorney General Eliot Spitzer into bid-rigging and accountsteering among major brokers, including Marsh. The AG's office, nowled by Andrew Cuomo, said in a statement the decision is beingreviewed, with an intention to appeal.

In a November 2009 case, Attorney General Cuomo's office askedthat charges be dropped against two other former Marsh executives,citing the expense of pursing the prosecution after three otherexecutives were acquitted the month before.