Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer faced a $60 million defamation lawsuit Monday from a former insurance executive who recently had his insurance fraud conviction dismissed.
William Gilman, a former Marsh & McLennan Cos. executive, filed a lawsuit Friday that contends Spitzer’s Slate.com article “They Still Don’t Get It” falsely suggested Gilman was criminally culpable for insurance-fraud schemes, Bloomberg reported.
Gilman was indicted on 37 counts of insurance fraud in New York State Supreme Court in 2005 while Spitzer was Attorney General of New York. Gilman was convicted of only one charge, but a judge thew out his sentence in January.
Spitzer’s article was written in response to a Wall Street Journal editorial critical of Spitzer’s office’s investigation of financial crimes.
“I haven’t seen the lawsuit and so will not comment on it,” Spitzer said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg. “The illegalities rampant at Marsh & McLennan leading to their fine of $850 million and the multiple judicial findings of illegality are clear from the public record.”