WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? US insurance industry scandals are turning the attention of regulators and Congress to Bermuda ? home to 1,600 insurers, or one for every 40 residents.

Besides beaches and palm trees, tiny Bermuda promotes itself as the ?Insurance Laboratory to the World? and has become a haven for insurers, insurance brokers and reinsurers that assume other insurers? risks.

Dozens of subpoenas have been issued by US federal and state authorities since November to Bermuda-based insurers including Ace Ltd, RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd., Arch Capital Group Ltd. and Alea Group Holding .

Investigators from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the Justice Department and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer?s office are looking into practices ranging from broker and agent pay deals to insurance products that may help companies smooth profits or hide losses.

Spitzer, whose probe into insurance bid rigging last year triggered the scandals, has suggested Congress look at whether insurers ?have sought to evade state regulation by locating their operations in Bermuda and other offshore havens?.

Some lawmakers in Congress are concerned, mostly from a taxpayer perspective. No formal hearings are scheduled.

Texas Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett this month introduced a bill, with 74 co-sponsors, to close tax treaty loopholes that make it profitable for US companies to set up shop in Bermuda and other offshore havens.

Michigan Democratic Sen. Carl Levin has probed offshore havens and remains keenly interested.

Bermuda is monitoring the situation. But for now, there are no ?hot potatoes? on Capitol Hill, said David Ezekiel, chairman of the Association of Bermuda International Companies.

?Every time something like this crops up ? whether Bermuda, Barbados or Cayman ? there is usually some association, some taint, and we just have to again hope that it is reasonably well contained,? Ezekiel told Reuters.

Spitzer accused insurance broker Marsh & McLennan Cos. in October of steering clients to certain insurers in exchange for lucrative payoffs.

In January, Marsh agreed to pay $850 million to settle charges that it colluded with American International Group and other insurers to fix prices.

Earlier this month, Bermuda-based Ace Ltd said it had received 43 subpoenas and other inquiries and demands from regulators and attorneys general in several US states.

This week, AIG said its long-time chief, Maurice ?Hank? Greenberg, was stepping down in the face of an SEC investigation of numerous AIG transactions.

Greenberg?s son, Evan Greenberg, is Ace chief executive. His older brother, Jeffrey Greenberg, headed up Marsh before being ousted last fall after Spitzer sued the company.

Bermuda was rocked this week when AIG said it had fired its Bermuda-based legal counsel, Michael Murphy. Well-known as an AIG executive in Bermuda and Washington, Murphy lobbied the US government on the company?s behalf.

He was ?instrumental in negotiation of the US/Bermuda tax treaty,? Ezekiel said.

Bermuda has been an offshore business haven since the 1930s. Its focus on insurance expanded greatly in the 1980s with the formation of Ace Ltd. and XL Capital Ltd.

Still more expansion came after the September 11, 2001, attacks on Washington and New York amid a wave of insurance start-ups.

The SEC declined to comment. Spitzer spokesman Marc Violette said the attorney general?s inquiry was continuing.

?We?re working closely with the SEC, the New York Department of Insurance, the Department of Justice and other state insurance regulators,? he said.