South Korea’s DB Insurance is currently facing a multimillion-dollar financial claims lawsuit in Guam and a hefty fine in Vietnam, Business Korea reported.
The insurer is being sued for US$60 million over unpaid claims related to Typhoon Mawar in 2023 in Guam, while in Vietnam, its Vietnamese subsidiary, Vietnam National Aviation Insurance (VNI), has been fined 260 million dong (US$10,000) by the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance for violating insurance payout regulations, the report said.
In Guam, Tanota Development LLC, Bayview II LLC, and Bayview I·III LLC—operators of major hotels including Dusit Thani Guam, Dusit Beach Resort, and Dusit Plaza—filed a lawsuit against DB Insurance for breach of contract, according to domestic media and The Guam Daily Post.
The plaintiffs are reportedly demanding US$60 million in damages, alleging that DB Insurance has only paid US$5 million thus far: US$2 million each to Dusit Thani Hotel and Dusit Beach Resort, and US$1 million to Dusit Plaza.
This amount represents less than 10% of the total claim. The plaintiffs also asserted that DB Insurance has employed a “strategy of calculated incompetence” for nearly 2 years to evade its obligations.
“Plaintiffs bring this action to seek the compensation owed to them but also to bring to light behavior that has cost insureds, and Guam, untold millions of dollars,” the complainants, as quoted by local media, stated.
The US$60 million being sought in this lawsuit, which is comparable to the annual revenue of DB Insurance’s Guam branch, could significantly affect the insurer’s future overseas operations.
In Vietnam, DB Insurance’s subsidiary, VNI, was fined by the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance after the Insurance Supervisory Authority discovered numerous instances of delayed or unnotified payments concerning motorcycle and automobile liability insurance, local media said.
