international broker, Johnson & Higgins London, which was recently acquired by rival Marsh & McLennan.

Chairman and chief executive of Forum Re Group (Bermuda), Mark Hardy, who just months ago was discharged as a UK bankrupt, said he will act on behalf of the management of the company in seeking compensation for Aneco Reinsurance Underwriting Ltd., a company now the subject of a Bermuda liquidation.

With the backing of a London High Court judgment, Mr. Hardy said, "There were a few hundred Bermuda and US shareholders who were shafted by J&H.'' Aneco Re's parent, Forum Re Group, was a publicly quoted company on Nasdaq and the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) which pumped an additional $10 million into Aneco to support its writing of property catastrophe business ten years ago.

Mr. Hardy said last week: "At the time, I kept saying this is not good business and we shouldn't be doing it. I was over-ruled by the democratic process of the board.

"In the end, with the benefit of hindsight, I was right. The whole thing was a complete disaster. There was the mis-broking on the programme by J&H, where the reinsurance protections were not in synch with the front end risk.

"Clearly, we would not have put in more money two weeks essentially after the mis-broking occurred.'' Mr. Hardy, whose empire of insurance companies in Bermuda and the US fell in the 1980s and the early 90s, said he is also considering legal action against other companies.

The trouble with his companies led to court judgments against him personally in Bermuda and London, including twice being made bankrupt in the UK, and being stripped of his designation as a chartered accountant.

He was unable to exercise any authority over the firm until after his latest bankruptcy was discharged this summer. Forum Re Group Bermuda was delisted from the BSX in May of 1996 because of failure to comply with BSX regulations.

Mr. Hardy was on the Island last week to attend to several matters, including regularising the affairs of Forum Re Group Bermuda.

But he said in an interview with The Royal Gazette : "If the appropriate reinsurance had been in place, it is arguable that Aneco should never have been placed in liquidation.

"The whole basis of Aneco going into liquidation was the problems of the London market collections, where reinsurers were not paid.

"Therefore the Bermuda and US shareholders of Forum Re Group (Bermuda) should be looking to be compensated.'' Mr. Hardy said Forum Re Group will be seeking to collect "many millions of dollars'' because if reinsurance business had been properly placed in the London market, reinsurers would not have been able to withhold payments from Aneco, which led to the company's difficulties.

He said, "There was property catastrophe business which would not have been written, if the reinsurance was not in place. I never wanted to write that business anyway, because that property catastrophe business was not something that small Bermuda companies should have been involved in.'' MARK HARDY -- Will act on behalf of management seeking compensation for Aneco Re.