April 28, 2006 at 23:00:00

Insurance Commissioner Accused of Cab Scam

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By Betty Clermont, Posted by Matthew Cardinale (about the submitter) Page 3 of 3 page(s)

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Waterhouse's cab insurance agency was co-owned by his father, Godfrey Waterhouse, 63, who lives in New Zealand. Godfrey Waterhouse told APN he had been placing customers' insurance with Contractors Bonding Limited (CBL), located in Auckland, for several years.

When the Georgia Insurance Code was changed, only companies domiciled in the US became permitted to issue certain types of policies.

CBL executives then assured Waterhouse they were taking over Mark Solofa Insurance, located in American Somoa. CBL faxed Waterhouse a copy of Solofa's Certificate of Authority from the American Somoan Insurance Department. Being located in a US territory, Solofa would qualify under the Georgia law.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) approved Solofa as having the necessary monetary reserves and issued them a code number which would permit them to write business in this state. CBL would continue to broker the policies.

As far as Waterhouses' customers were concerned, everything remained the same except the name on the insurance policy and their state-mandated proof of insurance read Mark Solofa Insurance instead of Contractors Bonding Limited. The Waterhouses continued to have all claims adjusted by Nolan & Co. as they had for many years.

For the next two years, the Waterhouses continued submitting their quarterly surplus lines tax returns to the Georgia Insurance Department showing the name of the company as Mark Solofa.

Oxendine informed the media his investigators uncovered the alleged scam in January 2005 when a Columbus cab company filed a complaint about a claim with Oxendine's office. He said that's when "we found out that [the Waterhouses] had not written any insurance policies."

Up until Robert's arrest, Geoff Waterhouse said they were never contacted by Oxendine, nor anyone from his office, nor anyone from any law enforcement agency, nor DA Milam, nor anyone from Milam's office. "We have ALWAYS dealt directly with CBL and it would be very easy to confirm this from our phone bills, our bank records and with Nolan & Co who did all the claims adjusting," Waterhouse wrote. He told APN that they would have been happy to turn their records over to any authority who had asked.

When Atlanta Progressive News was first informed of the story from a phonecall from New Zealand, we were able, within minutes, to check the Contractors Bonding Limited website, www.contractorsbonding.com ( As of 31st December 2003, CBL's Shareholders Funds stood at $20m ), the Nolan & Co. website, www.nolanandcompany.com ( Thomas S. Nolan, President and General Adjuster, has 28 years of claim adjusting experience etc.) and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners website, www.naic.org/cis/index.do (MARK SOLOFA INS CO, NAIC#: 11554 Home Office: American Samoa, Business Type: Property/Casualty ) to establish they all appeared to be legitimate businesses as Waterhouse claimed.

Guy Drexinger, Oxendine's opponent, said, "I have pledged not to accept any contributions from the insurance industry and publicly supported legislation this session that would ban contributions to candidates for Insurance Commissioner from out of state insurance companies."

CORRECTIONS: An earlier version of this story stated Robert Waterhouse claimed he was falsely arrested. That communication came from Godfrey "Geoff" Waterhouse, not Robert. The Waterhouses ran an insurance agency, not an insurance company. Also, Atlanta Progressive News does not know yet whether the assets which were frozen are missing. The story was been changed to reflect these items.

About the author:

Betty Clermont is a Staff Writer for Atlanta Progressive News and may be reached at betty@atlantaprogressivenews.com

Syndication policy:

This article may be reprinted in full at no cost where Atlanta Progressive News is credited.

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