Former Markel CATCo CEOs file $70m court case for ‘wrongful termination’

Two former Markel CATCo executives have filed court cases against the company claiming around $73.4 million for wrongful termination of employment after inappropriate searches of private smartphone messages.

In January 2019, Markel announced that Anthony Belisle, former CEO of Markel CATCo Investment Management, and Alissa Fredricks, former CEO – Bermuda, had both left the company with immediate effect.

The employer said that during an internal review of Markel CATCo’s loss reserves, it had discovered an “undisclosed personal relationship” between Belisle and Fredricks, which went against company policy.

However, in the US court case filings, both the former employees said the job terminations arose from “the improper and unlawful actions of Markel, as well as its wholly owned subsidiary Markel CATCo and others acting at Markel’s behest”. This includes Skadden, the firm employed by Markel to conduct the internal review on its behalf.

The documents filed by Fredericks said that Markel and Skadden representatives “demanded that all employees, including the plaintiff, surrender their personal phones and other business and personal electronic devices” to be searched without disclosing that they would be imaging personal communications such as WhatsApp. The claimants believed that they did not have a choice and provided the devices “believing that the imaging on the personal cell phones would be limited to company accounts and would not be extended to personal communications”.

Both plaintiffs also said the company had “tarnished” their reputations to prevent them from competing with Markel or Markel CATCo in the future. The filings stated that the employer had also attempted to justify its actions by changing a corporate policy after the employees were terminated to make previous conduct improper.

Fredricks’ document added: “[Such conduct by Markel has included] invading her privacy by accessing highly personal information without authorization, and then using such highly personal information to cause public embarrassment, injury to reputation, and emotional distress; implying in a public announcement that the termination somehow related to an on-going Government inquiry of Markel CATCo, when in fact the events were unrelated…”

As a result, the pair are claiming incentive payments among other monies owed. Belisle said he was owed vested incentive payments to the tune of $65.9 million, while Fredricks’ has claimed a minimum of $7.4 million.

Belisle and Fredricks filed their cases separately to district courts in New Hampshire and Massachusetts respectively.

A Markel spokesperson told Intelligent Insurer: “We are aware of the complaints filed by two former employees of Markel CATCo. We believe the claims in these complaints have no merit and intend to vigorously defend against them. We do not have further comment at this time.”