WILLEMSTAD – Hushang Ansary, the former owner of insurance company Ennia, has died. Ansary was born in Iran in 1927 and previously served as Iran’s minister of finance and ambassador to the United States.
After building a large international real estate empire, Ansary acquired Ennia in 2006. The insurer operates in Curaçao and Sint Maarten. Under his ownership, Ennia was rapidly stripped of assets, a process that later led to widespread complaints about financial mismanagement and serious concerns about the company’s solvency.
In 2018, the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten intervened and placed Ennia under emergency supervision. Regulators concluded that Ansary had extracted an estimated 570 million euros from the insurer, severely undermining its financial position and putting policyholders at risk.
Following lengthy legal proceedings, the Court of Curaçao ruled that Ansary was liable for the damage caused to Ennia. He was ordered to repay approximately 522 million euros to the insurance company.
The Ennia case has been one of the most significant financial scandals in the history of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with lasting consequences for pension funds, policyholders, and financial supervision in Curaçao and Sint Maarten.