SEC EYES BUFFETT

U.S. securities regulators investigating Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s reinsurance units are examining transactions involving St. Paul Cos. and former subsidiaries of Prudential Financial Inc., a filing shows.

Berkshire's General Re Corp., the largest U.S. reinsurer, briefed the Securities and Exchange Commission about the deals on June 13, the Stamford, Conn.-based company said in a second-quarter filing with state insurance regulators. Two former General Re executives invoked their Fifth Amendment right not to testify about the Prudential agreement, according to the filing.

Prudential, the second-largest U.S. life insurer, and St. Paul, the No. 2 commercial insurer, are among more than a dozen companies to become entangled in probes of a type of reinsurance regulators say can be used to manipulate earnings.

Investigators interviewed Warren Buffett, Berkshire's billionaire chairman, and contributed to the ouster of former American International Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Maurice Greenberg last year.

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