A private investment group is suing reinsurance brokerage TigerRisk (since rebranded as Howden Re) and the CEO of Lighthouse Insurance, claiming they defrauded the group out of $65 million.
The investment group, which includes HT Investments and its adviser Fortinbras Enterprises, filed the lawsuit against TigerRisk, Lighthouse Insurance CEO Patrick White, his father Lawrence White, the Lighthouse Family Trust, and the Lawrence E. White Family Foundation, according to a news release.
The lawsuit follows a previous complaint filed by the investment group related to the White family’s relationship with One Florida Bank, which received $19 million of the $65 million the group invested, the news release stated.
The lawsuits claim that Patrick and Lawrence White worked with TigerRisk to defraud the investment group out of $65 million in December 2021. The filings claim that the Whites and TIgerRisk worked together to misrepresent and obscure information about Lighthouse Insurance’s “dire financial problems” – including the fact that the company had been placed into conservatorship by the Louisiana Department of Insurance. The filings also claim the defendants misrepresented Lighthouse’s growing losses from Hurricane Ida.
A Louisiana judge ordered Florida-based Lighthouse Property Insurance Corporation to liquidate in May 2022 – less than a month after the company went into receivership in Florida.
“As Lighthouse’s reinsurance broker and longtime partner to the White Family, TigerRisk had special knowledge of and access to information about Lighthouse’s financial problems, regulatory issues, and the involvement of Lawrence White in Lighthouse operations,” Fortinbras Enterprises said in the news release. “Patrick White and TigerRisk were obligated to disclose these facts, but deliberately omitted them.”
Fortinbras Enterprises said the White family and its associated entities, as well as TIgerRisk, benefited from the $65 million investment.
“Lighthouse’s subsequent liquidation led to thousands of homeowners in Florida and Louisiana losing their insurance coverage in Spring 2023,” Fortinbras Enterprises said.
TIgerRisk was acquired by Howden in January 2023 and rebranded as Howden Tiger. It later rebranded as Howden Re.
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