Bruen Deldin DiDio Associates has agreed to pay the city of Hartford $350,000 after leaders accused the company of issuing a fake certificate of coverage for the project.
|Bogus certificate
Hartford sued the firm, its vice president Jeffrey Deldin, and former vice president Scott Hainey last year following a stagnant effort to revamp the aging Dillon Stadium in Colt Park. Officials alleged the firm and its employees allegedly created a bogus certificate indicating the stadium project — along with the city — was insured when no policy had been issued.
A valid insurance policy would have allowed Hartford to recover more than $700,000 misspent by the developers, according to city leaders. The document listed Hainey as the "producer" of the certificate and Deldin signed the document as an authorized representative of the firm.
|The timeline
Premier Sports Management Group submitted a certificate of liability insurance from Bruen Deldin DiDio indicating that the Providence Mutual Fire Insurance Co. had provided millions of dollars in liability insurance to Premier Sports, with the city listed as an additional insured.
Allegedly, a representative of Providence Mutual emailed a Bruen employee advising the agency that Providence Mutual would not insure Premier Sports because it could not assess the "exposure that is involved in property development and management of sports, arenas, teams or individuals."
|Did not meet underwriting criteria
The Providence Mutual insurance certificate was created two weeks after Premier was dropped by another insurance company. On Sept. 5, 2014, Ohio Mutual canceled its policy with Premier, saying the developer did not meet its underwriting criteria, according to the city’s lawsuit.
In response to the suit, representatives of Bruen Deldin DiDio said that even if the liability insurance had been in place, the policy would not have covered the losses suffered by the city.
"The city will have a difficult time recovering funds from those who have been convicted of criminal fraud against the city," Mayor Luke Bronin said, "but I am glad we've been able to recoup at least some of those funds through this settlement."
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Denny Jacob
Denny Jacob is an associate editor for NU PropertyCasualty360. Contact him at [email protected].
