FORMER NEW York governor Eliot Spitzer was hit with two libel lawsuits seeking $90 million by former Marsh McLennan executives over a column posted on Slate.com about an insurance bid-rigging scandal.

The lawsuits arose from Spitzer’s August 22nd, 2010, column, “They Still Don’t Get It”, advocating prosecution of corporate wrongdoers and defending his own enforcement activity against Marsh and insurer American International Group (AIG).

William Gilman, a former Marsh executive marketing director, and Edward McNenney, a former Marsh global placement director, contended that they were defamed by the column, which appeared three months after a judge threw out their convictions on felony antitrust charges. Neither is named in the column.

Slate.com is owned by the Washington Post,and its parent Slate Group is a defendant in both cases.

Mr Gilman filed his $60 million lawsuit in the US district court in Manhattan, while Mr McNenney filed papers seeking $30 million with the New York State supreme court in Manhattan. Both cases were filed on Friday and made public yesterday.

Mr Spitzer declined to comment after the first of the lawsuits became public.

Mr Gilman had worked at Marsh for 28 years and Mr McNenney for 14 years when Mr Spitzer, then New York’s attorney general, in 2004 opened an investigation into the company’s practices – including alleged kickbacks for steering of clients to favoured insurers.

Marsh, then the largest US insurance broker, agreed in January 2005 to pay $850 million in a civil settlement with Mr Spitzer, and eight insurance executives including Mr Gilman and Mr McNenney were indicted eight months later in the inquiry.

Both men were found guilty in February 2008, but the presiding judge threw out that conviction in July 2010. – (Reuters)