Dodgers owner sued over life insurance self-dealing

The lawsuit comes amid investigations by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.(CN) — A Florida annuity holder is suing Delaware Life Insurance Co. and other companies tied to billionaire Mark Walter, claiming they concealed billions of dollars in investments tied to the Los Angeles Dodgers owner’s business empire while inflating the value of their annuities.The class, who filed suit Wednesday in Miami federal court, claims Delaware Life told regulators and the public that about 3% of its invested assets — roughly $1.4 billion — were related-party investments. After federal investigators issued grand jury subpoenas to the insurer, it revealed that affiliated investments instead accounted for about 42% of invested assets at the end of 2025.The lawsuit was brought by Ira Rosner, a Miami-Dade County resident who says he purchased a Delaware Life TruePath Income fixed index annuity in April with an initial premium of about $1 million. He claims he exchanged an existing Jackson National annuity for the Delaware Life product after being promised guaranteed joint lifetime income of $181,677 a year for himself and his wife.Rosner says he would not have made the transaction had he known the extent of Delaware Life’s exposure to investments tied to Walter, who is now selling off assets to recoup cash amid heightened scrutiny over his supposed self-dealing.Rosner names Delaware Life, Group 1001 Insurance Holdings LLC, Group 1001 Inc., TWG Global Holdings LLC, Guggenheim Partners LLC and Walter as defendants.Rosner is represented by Stuart Davidson of Robbins, Geller, Rudman & Dowd in Boca Raton, Florida.Delaware Life did not respond to a request for comment.“Over the past several weeks, multipronged attacks against TWG have been advanced by unnamed sources with self-serving interests that have been reported in the media,” the company said. “It is important to set the record straight. TWG stands firmly behind the integrity of its business and remains focused on continuing to deliver value to its stakeholders.”According to the class, Delaware Life’s corrected financial figures showed about $9.53 billion in private-credit investments as of Dec. 31, 2024, that were “predominantly contingent on the performance of affiliates.” That figure rose to about $16.37 billion at the end of 2025 and $16.82 billion as of June 30, Rosner says. He also cites about $821 million in additional funding-agreement and trust-note structures with repayment purportedly dependent predominantly on affiliates.The class says only about $1 billion of the restated exposure consisted of direct investments in affiliates. The remainder involved investments whose nominal counterparties were not affiliates but whose ability to repay depended on Walter-related companies.Rosner says the structure made Delaware Life’s portfolio appear more diversified than it was because billions of dollars in policyholder-backed assets were ultimately exposed to businesses associated with a single controlling owner, Walter.The class action comes amid investigations by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.Delaware Life and another Walter-controlled insurer, Clear Spring Life and Annuity Co., received federal grand jury subpoenas in February concerning whether certain private-credit investments introduced by an affiliate should have been classified as related-party transactions.The companies disclosed the subpoenas in recent regulatory filings. The class claims Delaware Life continued selling annuities for more than four months after receiving the subpoenas, including to Rosner, without disclosing the investigation.Rosner says he submitted his application April 1 and Delaware Life issued the annuity April 8, delivering it April 23. The contract provided a 30-day period for a full refund, which he says expired in late May, before the subpoenas were publicly disclosed.Rosner says that Delaware Life’s sales materials repeatedly told purchasers that the annuity guarantees were backed by the company’s financial strength and claims-paying ability. He insists those claims were misleading because the company did not disclose the extent of its related-party exposure.Rosner ultimately surrendered the annuity in August after learning of the investigation and the restated financial figures, according to the class. Delaware Life deducted a surrender charge and a market value adjustment totaling $116,575.53, he notes.Walter, the chief executive of Guggenheim and TWG, made headlines recently for selling the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers to former Disney CEO Bob Iger and Thrive Capital founder Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.Walter sold the team just 14 months after he purchased it, netting $2.5 billion through the transaction. On Wednesday, he also sold his stake in the English Premier League soccer club Chelsea.The proposed class would include people and entities who purchased or exchanged into Delaware Life annuities from Jan. 1, 2024, through June 26. Tens of thousands of purchasers could be members of the proposed nationwide class.Rosner accuses the defendants of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, civil conspiracy and other violations.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads