The Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) has set out the reasoning behind its decision to indefinitely prohibit Joakim Samuelsson from holding senior roles in Bermuda's re/insurance sector, pointing to sustained failures tied to the collapse of Custodian Life.
Issued under section 32H of the Insurance Act 1978, the order bars Samuelsson from serving as a controller, director, officer, chief executive, senior executive, or associate of any entity registered under the Act. The regulator said Samuelsson had the right to appeal the decision to an Appeal Tribunal but chose not to exercise it.
The BMA said findings covered improper trading practices, inaccurate and misleading public disclosures, and a failure to cooperate with an appointed investigator during Samuelsson's time as a director, officer, and controller of the failed Bermudian re/insurer.
Samuelsson, a Swedish national, founded Custodian Life in 2011 and served as its sole director, general manager and principal. The company was a Class C long-term insurer offering investment-linked policies to international clients, marketed on the strength of Bermuda's flexible legislative framework and segregated accounts regime.
Custodian was placed into provisional liquidation on November 24, 2023, with Marcin Czarnocki and John Johnston of Deloitte appointed as joint provisional liquidators. All policyholder redemptions were suspended in December that year.
The Supreme Court ordered the company wound up on October 3, 2025, citing extensive and longstanding regulatory breaches.
The BMA concluded that Samuelsson had "failed to conduct and manage the business of Custodian in a prudent manner and demonstrated a lack of competence, diligence and soundness of judgment." The regulator said his conduct was a direct cause of the eventual liquidation.
Among the specific findings, the authority cited undisclosed shorting of policyholder-directed investments that exposed clients to Custodian's own trading risks, and the use of a segregation model that failed to provide meaningful protection to policyholder assets.
The BMA also pointed to inaccurate statutory and public disclosures around the funding and ring-fencing of segregated accounts, alongside outsourcing and records-control failures that it said impeded oversight and the work of the JPLs.
The regulator further flagged non-compliance with court orders that resulted in contempt of court findings. The JPLs have separately said Samuelsson remained in contempt of the Supreme Court of Bermuda for more than a year over his failure to produce records.
Taken together, the BMA said the conduct showed "serious and sustained failures of probity, integrity, competence and soundness of judgment."
The regulator's decision to publish its full rationale, permitted under section 44I of the Act, is unusual. The BMA said the step "serves to protect policyholders and the public, reinforces the importance of compliance with Bermuda's regulatory framework, and supports confidence in Bermuda as a well-regulated financial center."
Custodian had not filed audited accounts in proper form since the financial year ended December 31, 2020.
