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| Europe |
| Exclusive: Von der Leyen's Brother, a U.S. Betting Giant, and Romania's Insurance Scandal |
| 2023-09-28 |
| The granting of a licence to sell motor insurance in Romania to a company managed by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s brother is raising eyebrows in Brussels. It comes just weeks after the Commission refused access to MEPs to view an official report relating to irregularities by the primary Romanian insurance regulator and an alleged campaign of harassment against one firm in particular. ..."Eazy Asigurari," a subsidiary of the European gambling giant Superbet, shocked pundits earlier this month when it was given a licence to sell motor insurance by the Romanian insurance regulator ASF against the expectations of most industry experts. Superbet, one of Europe’s largest online gambling consortiums specialising in betting technology, has an annual turnover of $1.1 billion. The company announced the appointment of Hans-Holger Albrecht, von der Leyen’s brother, as chairman in February, coinciding with a global expansion plan. Financially backed by the American asset management firm Blackstone, Superbet’s entrance into the Romanian insurance market comes after years of financial and political intrigue in the sector which culminated in the forced departure of one of the country’s largest insurance companies, Euroins, after what it claimed was a campaign of regulatory harassment by ASF. In March of this year, ASF removed Euroins’s trading licence on the grounds of a €400 million capital deficiency, a fact contested not just by the company but also by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Bulgarian regulators, and an independent auditor who all claimed that the company was solvent. |
| Posted by:Grom the Reflective |