Oklahoma Placing Pegasus Insurance into Rehabilitation

A district court judge has authorized Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland to place Pegasus Insurance Co. into rehabilita-tion.

Pegasus specializes in workers’ compensation for professional employer organizations (PEOs), or employee leasing entities, according to information posted on the company’s Web site.

The court’s order states that Pegasus’s owner, Wayne Stark, has consented to the appointment of the Oklahoma Department of Insurance and Commissioner Holland as receiver for rehabilitation of the company.

The department asserts, and Pegasus does not contest the assertion, that the company “is insolvent and a hazard to policyholders, the creditors of Pegasus and the general public,” according to the court order posted on the insurance department’s Web site.

Commissioner Holland was named receiver and directed to “take possession of the property of Pegasus Insurance Company and conduct its business until further order of the Court,” the June 21 order signed by District Court Judge Vicki Robertson states.

Pegasus is the third workers’ compensation insurer closed down by the Oklahoma Insurance Department since November 2009. In May 2010, the department received court approval to liquidate Imperial Casualty and Indemnity Co., based in Frisco, Texas. Like Pegasus, Imperial Casualty also sold workers’ comp insurance to PEOs.

Imperial Casualty was a subsidiary of Park Avenue Property and Casualty Insurance Co., which was liquidated by the OID in late November 2009.