If there was a listing of individually initiated financial disasters, the depredations of Ponzi-schemer Bernard Madoff might rank at the top, but opinions may differ on how much of an insurance catastrophe he has created.
Mr. Madoff–who was arrested in December 2008 and finally sent to prison for 150 years this June–is credited with ripping off clients of his Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC to the tune of between $10 billion and $20 billion.
Generally, the official insurance industry definition requirement for a catastrophe is a covered loss of $25 million or more, and Loretta Worters, an Insurance Information Institute representative, said that “we don't have anything like that at this point” when it comes to Madoff-related losses.
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