Members of the Fraynd family could not be reached despite calls to phone numbers listed for them. But an attorney for them said they plan to appeal the decision. And in a blog post, Paul Fraynd wrote that the state shares some of the blame for Aries' folding. He said that Aries sought the state's help in recovering $30 million owed by a reinsurer, which sells insurance to insurers, but the state was too slow in making that happen. He said the company agreed to transfer $20 million from Aries' affiliate to the state but the state wanted more.
"In 2004, the Florida Statewide Prosecutor turned what should have been an insurance dispute into criminal charges against some Fraynd family members," he wrote. "After more than three years of litigation in the criminal courts, the Statewide Prosecutor was forced to drop the most serious charges in return for technical violations of the insurance laws."
A DFS spokeswoman said the state found the reinsurer did not owe as much as the Fraynds claimed.
