Insurance broker loses bid to undo $52.4M arbitration award
In October 2023, the insurer won a Mareva injunction, a court order that freezes assets, against the brokerage and others in a separate lawsuit. On November 28, 2023, it launched arbitration, claiming damages for civil fraud and other causes of action. It sought $73,847,180.96, roughly what it said it had paid the brokerage in commissions and bonuses since 2021.
On August 5, 2025, a three-member panel found the brokerage liable and awarded the insurer $52.4 million in damages, plus $1,753,949.54 in costs. The panel also voided transfers of properties bought in four other parties’ names with money the brokerage advanced from the insurer’s funds. It ordered the brokerage to sell them and return the money, and placed them in trust for the brokerage. The brokerage’s principal called the advances loans, but the panel found there were none.
Fighting the claim meant accepting the panel
The brokerage argued the panel had no say over money the insurer paid after August 27, 2023, because the newer agreement had no arbitration clause and replaced earlier deals on the same subject.
Justice Cavanagh noted the insurer’s claim covered all commissions and bonuses since 2021 from day one. Its August 2024 defence and counterclaim, filed while it had lawyers, raised no objection. The panel had already ruled that the 2023 agreement did not replace the original, because the two dealt with different subject matter.
By defending the claim, counterclaiming and taking part, the judge found, the brokerage accepted the panel’s authority and “waived its right to object to the jurisdiction of the Tribunal.”
