The award against the unit of Prudential, the giant life insurer, included $11.7 million in compensatory damages and $250 million in punitive damages, a Prudential spokesman, Robert DeFillippo, said.
The deals come with several contingencies for the insurer, including an obligation to maintain a specific minimum net worth and to limit its total debt.
In recent years, Mediobanca, Generali's biggest shareholder with a 13.6% stake, has removed no fewer than three chairmen from the top of the insurer, including Antoine Bernheim, a Frenchman who was reinstalled last September.
The scope of the claims could have other ramifications for art dealers and insurers, including higher insurance rates.
And other private insurers, including self-insured businesses, are offering the prospect of millions of dollars for companies like Verisk Health to scale these efforts.
The 68 health insurers included in this analysis insure from 100,000 to more than 7 million individuals.
Some insurers, including United Healthcare also have special credit plans available for insured members whose policies are linked to health savings accounts.
Part of the problem was that many bond insurers, including A.I.G., sold credit-default swaps as a form of insurance with inadequate capital to cover their obligations.
Yet insurers, including Medicare, will continue to cover it.
I checked a handful of insurers, including Tesco, Aviva, Halifax, Axa, Direct Line and Allianz.
