MetLife Settles Deceptive-Sales Charges

Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., the second-largest U.S. life insurer, will pay $25 million to settle allegations it used deceptive practices to sell policies to 20,000 nurses and others, prosecutors said. The agreement stems from a probe of marketing and sales practices used by employees at its Southeast headquarters in Tampa, Fla., to sell whole-life insurance policies nationwide between 1989 and 1993 by representing them as savings and retirement plans, U.S. Atty. Charles Wilson said. MetLife executives could not immediately be reached for comment. The $25-million penalty is the largest ever obtained by the U.S. government in such an investigation and will be paid in addition to the restitution to policyholders, Wilson said.