RICO Claims in Security Benefit Life Case Reverse-Preempted, Kan. Federal Judge Rules

KANSAS CITY — A Kansas federal judge has dismissed claims that Security Benefit Life Insurance Co. violated the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act by entering into reinsurance transactions designed to make the insurer appear financially healthy to investors while selling them low-performing annuities.

On July 12, Judge Holly Teeter of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas found the claims are reverse-preempted by the McCarran-Ferguson Act because they would interfere with state insurance regulators’ oversight of the transactions.

Plaintiff Albert Ogles was an investor in Security Benefit Life’s “Total Value Annuity,” known as a “fixed indexed annuity.”