Mike Henry, the 60-year old founder of the Auckland-based Mike Travel Insurance Limited, is seeing his mini-empire start to crumble on the eve of his retirement, as consequences of alleged wrongdoings committed over many years catch up with him.According to sources, Mike Henry is attempting to sell expatriate health insurance provider Interglobal Limited, a company he controls. A forensic examination of publicly-available Interglobal Limited financial records indicates that Interglobal Limited is "a house of cards". In the most recently reported (2004) financial year, (Source: UK Companies Office), Interglobal Limited had revenue of only GBP1,914,601 (US$3,230,000), and a razor-thin net profit of only GBP7,792 (US$13,200). Cash reserves were a mere GBP315,280 ($535,976). It is unknown why Interglobal Limited’s auditor suddenly resigned in Nov. 2005, coincidentally around the time that details of Mike Henry wrongdoings started circulating on the internet.
Industry watchers suspect that Mike Henry brought in Stephen Hartigan, a respected industry professional, as CEO, in a desperate attempt to give the faltering company some credibility, with the aim of dressing Interglobal Limited up for a sale. It is unlikely that Mike Henry told Mr. Hartigan the true history of the business. Based on results, however, Interglobal Limited can be argued to be of negligible worth to an acquirer, from both a financial and a strategic perspective, given Interglobal Limited’s infinitesimal market share, low profitability, and the low valuation (GBP750,000) that Royal Bank of Scotland divested its 45% share for in August, 2004.
Another mystery is why some of the Interglobal Limited brokers falsely state on their websites and in advertising that Interglobal Limited has "over 800,000 members securely covered worldwide" (see "Globally Fictitious", below). An analysis of the published financial results reveals that the real number of customers is only a few thousand, which is less than 1% of the advertised number, and most likely is an intentional effort by Mike Henry and his minions to deceive the public, by attempting to paint a blatently false picture of financial health and massive scale, while the reality is that Interglobal Limited has an insignificant market share and is barely solvent.
And if Interglobal Limited’s financial problems were not enough, more trouble lies ahead. The ownership of the Interglobal business, with offices in the U.K. and New Zealand, is in dispute. The founder and a number of other persons have provided sworn statements and documents to the Serious Fraud Office in New Zealand, in which they detail allegations of mail and wire fraud, document fraud, conspiracy, duress, money laundering, embezzlement, defamation, theft of millions of dollars, and making false statements to the IRD, on the part of Mike Henry, and his business partner, Steven M. Nichols, in connection with their seizure of control of the Interglobal (formerly Global Healthcare) business, while its founder was recovering from a serious traffic accident.
Mike Henry NZ Limited was under contract as third-party administrator of the program at the time. Mike Henry and Steve Nichols are alleged to have committed duress and insurance fraud by threatening to withhold payment of tens of thousand of dollars in hospital bills if the founder did not cede control of the business. Mike Henry and Steve Nichols then registered new companies to transact the already-existing business, in an apparent attempt to cover up their alleged illegal acts, and allegedly proceeded to embezzle millions of dollars in income that was not theirs, according to a sworn statement provided by the founder of the business, which is accompanied by more than 800 pages of supporting documents. It is clear from the evidence that Mike Henry never purchased the business from the founder and played no role in creating the business. Steve Nichols further threatened to make trouble for the founder with the Inland Revenue Department if the founder did not leave New Zealand. There is evidence that Mike Henry NZ Limited then filed false declarations with the NZ Inland Revenue Department, in an attempt to create a New Zealand tax liability for the defrauded founder, stating that he had been an employee of Mike Henry NZ Limited, when in fact MHNZ was employed by the founder as third-party administrator, and Mike Henry had no business involving itself in the founder's tax issues. The London solicitors for the defrauded founder have rendered an opinion that Mike Henry and Steve Nichols defrauded the founder out of his business and income.
Mike Henry-controlled Interglobal Limited lost its underwriting contract with a Lloyds of London syndicate in October, 2002, when it was brought to the syndicate's attention that Interglobal was trading illegally in Japan.
Further investigation has turned up a number of former business associates who have submitted sworn affidavits and documented evidence detailing multiple acts of alleged fraud committed by Mike Henry and Steve Nichols.
Mike Henry sold a 50.1% stake in Mike Henry Travel Insurance Limited, a distributor of travel insurance sold to consumers through Flight Centre, House of Travel, Harvey World, Holiday Shoppe, and various other travel agencies, to Insurance Australia Group (IAG) in July, 2004. The remaining 49.9% is scheduled to be sold to IAG in the second quarter of 2006, according to NZ Commerce Commission filings.
Shareholders of Insurance Australia Group have reason to call for the cancellation of the Mike Henry Travel Insurance Limited acquisition, on the grounds that doing business with Mike Henry has significant potential to tarnish IAG's good reputation, and as further details of extensive wrongdoing on the part of Mike Henry and Steve Nichols are revealed, the value of the Mike Henry brand name will be eroded or rendered worthless, enriching Mike Henry at the expense of IAG shareholders.
This story was prepared in part with information from the following source:
UK Companies Office: http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk
Search on: Interglobal Limited, - Order Documents, - Last Accounts to 30/6/04
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