Aside from the Luxembourg connection, Ansary’s financial empire has attracted attention because of an ongoing civil court case in Curaçao involving ENNIA Caribe, the largest personal insurance company in the Dutch Antilles.Hushang Ansary and his wife, Shahla
The complaint, filed by ENNIA — now under control of Curaçao’s central bank — accuses Ansary of acquiring the firm in 2006 and using it as a personal piggy bank, setting up a Luxembourg-based company, EC Investments International, and transferring assets there for tax benefits.
The way those actions were carried out, the complaint filed in October 2019 says, threatens ENNIA’s ability to conduct the most basic function of an insurer — paying the claims of its policyholders.
The civil lawsuit also alleges that some of ENNIA’s revenue, coming from the premiums paid by policyholders for insurance lines like life and health insurance policies, went out as donations to nonprofits tied to President George H.W. Bush and former Secretary of State James Baker.
The complaint, brought by the new administrators of ENNIA, asks that the Curaçao court hold Ansary; his daughter, prominent academic and social commentator Nina Ansary; and three associates — Abdallah Andraous, Ralph Palm and Gijsbert van Doorn — liable for damages worth hundreds of millions.
Without going into specifics — which he says he is barred from doing by the ongoing court matter — Ansary rejected the Curaçao complaint.
“Mr. Ansary and all participants in the legal process are not at liberty to disclose or discuss the merits of the ongoing proceedings,” stated Ansary’s attorneys, in response to a series of detailed questions from the Miami Herald and McClatchy.
“Mr. Ansary’s response is, therefore, limited to a strong denial of all the allegations, which are absolutely and, in their totality, untrue and misleading as presented,” the statement said.
In a prior interview more than a year ago with a Curaçao television station, TeleCuraçao, Ansary said the insurance company was at the peak of its prosperity, liquidity and profitability when the central bank decided to take control.
ENNIA, too, declined to comment to the Herald/McClatchy, citing ongoing legal proceedings in Curaçao and the United States. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article248949799.html
