Mr. Spitzer told his audience that despite efforts to depict his insurance probe as unfair prosecution of "honest mistakes," he has already secured six pleas and there are "more to come very shortly," and "many more to come down the road."

He did not elaborate as to whether the new guilty pleas will deal with Marsh & McLennan Inc., with whom he settled earlier in the day, a company involved in the probe of Marsh, or some other company in a probe separate from the Marsh probe.

Michael Cherkasky, chief executive officer of MMC, in a press briefing said the agreement meant there would be no criminal prosecution of the company.

Mr. Spitzer's reference to an attempt to attribute criminality to "honest mistakes" was an apparent response to comments made by Tom Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Several weeks ago, Mr. Donohue castigated Mr. Spitzer for his moves against companies, saying he was acting as judge, jury and prosecutor. Mr. Spitzer speculated that Mr. Donohue's comments were part of an all-out industry assault on the federal Sarbanes-Oxley corporate accounting law.

He defended his work as necessary, saying self-regulatory agencies and the Securities and Exchange Commission were not being aggressive in punishing wrongdoing in the insurance, mutual fund, brokerage and pharmaceutical industries.

Reticent regulators reacting to his tactics, Mr. Spitzer said, told him the "industry ?won't like it.'"

Mr. Spitzer called the Marsh agreement "wonderful in many respects," noting the company has adopted a new business model and forsaken acceptance of contingency commissions.

His civil action against the company had accused MMC's Marsh brokerage unit of taking fees as a payoff from insurers who were in on a scheme to rig bids and fix prices for commercial insurance clients that Marsh steered their way.

Answering a question dealing with the settlement, in which Marsh did not admit or deny guilt, Mr. Spitzer said he did not impose a fine because if he had done so, that money would have had to go to the state under New York law. This way, he said, the money, which constituted a year's contingent compensation for Marsh, will go back to its customers.

Mr. Spitzer, who announced last month he is a New York gubernatorial candidate, used part of his talk to criticize the Bush Administration's calls for private accounts for Social Security with warnings that the self-regulatory system has "failed."

Mr. Spitzer said the president is seeking to co-opt the benefits Democrats have given the middle class through creation of the SEC and Social Security, among other programs.

He also attacked President Bush's efforts to centralize handling of class action lawsuits in federal courts.

"The president is out there right now attacking many problems that drive premiums up," Mr. Spitzer said. "But I have not heard the president mutter a single word about the insurance industry participation in illegal cartels."