attracted the attention of the US media.

The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported that Bermuda's image as a place of "enlightened regulators and dynamic entrepreneurs'' is also on trial in a case which pits Bermuda Fire's liquidators against some of the Island's top businessmen, lawyers and accountants.

"For Bermuda's critics, the case underscores the clubby nature of business life on this coral outcrop in the Atlantic,'' the newspaper stated.

Bermuda Fire, which started off insuring domestic risk in Bermuda, later branched out into covering pollution and asbestos risks with "disastrous results'', the newspaper stated.

The reporter noted that a 1994 US congressional report called the Bermuda Fire episode "a prime example of outrageous irresponsibility by an offshore insurance company, exacerbated by a cavalier disregard for the consequences on people living elsewhere''. The subcommittee on oversight and investigations of the House Energy and Commerce Committee report stated that the case "demonstrates quite clearly that, while outside premium money is always welcome in the Islands, local interests may not find it convenient to pay their debts''.

BUSINESS BUC COURTS CTS