Business Sues Insurers for Madoff Losses

MINNEAPOLIS (CN) - A pharmaceutical company says it is reeling because it invested all of its employees' profit-sharing funds with Bernard Madoff and its insurers won't cover the losses. Upsher-Smith, which employs 550 people in Minneapolis, says it lost millions of dollars of its own in Madoff's Ponzi scam.

"Rather than rushing in to protect Upsher-Smith from the losses and potential liabilities associated with the devastating Madoff theft, St. Paul and Travelers have chosen to abandon Upsher-Smith and leave Upsher-Smith to fend for itself in its time of need," according to the complaint in Hennepin County Court.

Upsher-Smith said it had $13 million in employee benefit plans liability insurance with St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company and a "Wrap+" crime insurance policy with Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America. It says both policies should have indemnified it for Madoff's thefts.

The drugmaker says the U.S. Department of Labor has found Upsher-Smith obliged to restore employee losses.

Maple Grove, Minn.-based Upsher-Smith produces a number of prescription and over-the-counter medications, among them the folic acid supplement Folgard, the anticoagulant Jantoven, and a heart arrhythmia treatment called Pacerone.

Madoff has been sentenced to die in jail for stealing about $60 billion in a multi-decade Ponzi scam.Upsher-Smith is represented by Thomas Mielenhausen with Lindquist & Vennum.

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