Bouncer turned Businessman

July 21, 2014 8:23 AM

The nightclub insurer promised to fight for its clients — its promotional material shows a man socked in the face with a boxing glove. But founder Jeffrey B. Cohen fights everything. He went after competitors, clients, former employees and even neighbors, filing dozens of lawsuits around the country. The Reisterstown man once sought a restraining order to keep a rival company from attending an adult industry convention.
posted by josher71 (13 comments total)

Schadenfreude when it seems the person was an asshole is totally healthy, right?
posted by kellyblah at 8:49 AM on July 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Court documents related to that search show that agents found several high-powered weapons, including one that they say cost $25,000 and others with long-range scopes; notes referencing firebombs and explosive gas; and an order form for incendiary ammunition.

Agents say he kept a "target list," and they found printouts of maps to the homes of Delaware judge J. Travis Laster and an elected official from that state. They also recovered a digital recorder on which Cohen discusses killing.

"Society needs to look at the fact that killing isn't wrong in certain circumstances," he is alleged to have said on the recording. "Killing culls the weak, killing culls the wrong so that society can have a better chance of survival."

He sounds completely deranged. Hopefully the victims who sued the businesses he insured and won will see their money.
posted by zarq at 8:53 AM on July 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

The Sun headline makes it seem like he's battling a rare form of cancer or something heroic, rather than having ripped off a bunch of strip clubs and planned to kill a judge.
posted by Ham Snadwich at 9:29 AM on July 21, 2014 [4 favorites]

It's an interesting anecdote but an old story. Regulators and law enforcement work slowly, and in the meantime you can make a nice living off people who lack the diligence or smarts to consider whether something sounds too good to be true.
posted by cribcage at 9:32 AM on July 21, 2014

Regulators and law enforcement work slowly

Regulators shouldn't even let you off the ground in insurance--especially when you're offering liability to high-risk establishments--unless you can prove you have a shitload of reserves behind you and you get regularly and thoroughly audited. You can't just step into being an insurer; I don't understand how this happened.
posted by Hoopo at 9:58 AM on July 21, 2014 [2 favorites]

Why do bad things happen to bad people? Sometimes because they work reaaaaalllly hard to make the worst decisions!
posted by Carillon at 9:59 AM on July 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

I find it strange how the article glides right past the responsibility of the brokers who were selling this insurance. They had one job and they didn't do it.
posted by srboisvert at 10:33 AM on July 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Hey, he had the lowest rates? Isn't that what the TV ads all say is the most important thing about picking an insurer?
posted by localroger at 11:41 AM on July 21, 2014

I find it strange how the article glides right past the responsibility of the brokers who were selling this insurance. They had one job and they didn't do it.

what did the brokers do wrong in your opinion? It's not like there was a huge issue with the coverage provided--there were some weird exclusions apparently, but that's something you point out to your customers and a lot of the time they don't care.

my reading was that it was mostly a problem with the insurer, who was playing games with their finances to create an impression they were legit. A couple of brokers seem to have picked up on the fact something was wrong, but I don't think brokers are obligated to do much research into the finances of insurers because this is a heavily regulated industry where the basics -- like solvency -- should theoretically be treated as a given. A lot of the businesses, including at least one mentioned in this article, are ultimately looking at the bottom line, and they see these exclusions but the price is 20% lower than everyone else and they're like "bare minimum reached, sign me up". The broker's job is to get their customers insurance, and in this case, they did. Until Cohen's company failed, at least.
posted by Hoopo at 11:43 AM on July 21, 2014

Attorney Timothy Pothin said a client stabbed in the neck at an Indemnity-insured restaurant in Connecticut — an attack that caused brain damage and paralysis

Of all the ways to wind up disabled, being stabbed in the neck at the USS Chowder Pot is just absurd.
posted by dr_dank at 3:58 PM on July 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

I don't think brokers are obligated to do much research into the finances of insurers because this is a heavily regulated industry where the basics -- like solvency -- should theoretically be treated as a given.

You're fired as my broker.
posted by srboisvert at 5:48 PM on July 21, 2014

Of all the ways to wind up disabled, being stabbed in the neck at the USS Chowder Pot is just absurd.

We could build a sit-com around this!
posted by Pudhoho at 8:05 PM on July 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

"Society needs to look at the fact that killing isn't wrong in certain circumstances," he is alleged to have said on the recording. "Killing culls the weak, killing culls the wrong so that society can have a better chance of survival."

So by this logic then suicide was the plan?
posted by juiceCake at 8:49 PM on July 21, 2014