The U.K. Financial Services Authority, or FSA, said Wednesday it has banned Timothy Higgins, Clifford Felstead and Ralph Brunswick from working in regulated financial services for a GBP2 million fraud.

MAIN FACTS:

-All three men were involved in a scheme which defrauded Markel International Insurance Co., QBE Insurance (Europe) and Amalfi Underwriting over an extended period of time, exposing them to significant losses.

-Higgins would also have been fined GBP600,000 were it not for the fact that he had recently been made bankrupt; Higgins was a director and founder of Surety Guarantee Consultants, a firm established in 2005 to write a form of insurance known as surety bonds and Felstead was an employee of SGC in a management role.

-Surety Guarantee held binding authorities with London market insurers, Markel and QBE to issue surety bonds; Surety Guarantee wrote business that exceeded its authorized limits, exposing Markel and QBE to greater liabilities than they had agreed.

-In doing so, Surety Guarantee made secret profits and withheld over GBP2 million that should have been paid to the insurers; When Surety Guarantee was audited by the insurers it produced false documents intended to show that it had kept within the terms of the binding authorities.

-Surety Guarantee was aided by Brunswick who provided false documents in the name of a company located in the Isle of Man, where he was employed at the time.

-Surety Guarantee also lied to QBE about Felstead’s previous conviction for fraud; Surety Guarantee ceased trading in January 2007.