(Bloomberg) ? White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd.?s ties with Olympus Re raise questions of conflicts of interest because the two companies share directors, investors and business relations, Barron?s reported.

Virtually all of the reinsurance business for Bermuda-based Olympus comes from White Mountains, which is also based in Bermuda, and Olympus outsources functions such as business development, policy underwriting and investment management to White Mountains, Barron?s reported, without saying where it got the information.

Olympus, with $1.3 billion in premium flow over the past three years, has two employees, the newspaper said.

Olympus is an independent entity in which White Mountains has an indirect ownership of less than one-tenth of one percent; no White Mountains employee is an employee or a director of Olympus; and business between the two has been properly disclosed, Barron?s cited a White Mountains statement as saying.

The largest Olympus shareholders, Leucadia National Corp., Franklin Resources Inc., and Fairholme Capital Management, also are long-time investors in White Mountains, Barron?s said, citing a list of investors posted on Olympus?s website.

Leucadia president Joseph Steinberg and Fairholme managing member Bruce Berkowitz are on the White Mountains board and serve as chairman and deputy chairman, respectively, of Olympus, Barron?s said. Concerns over ties between White Mountains and Olympus come from a smear campaign mounted by a disgruntled employee of White Mountains, Barron?s cited an unidentified Olympus investor as saying.