NEW YORK (Reuters)—Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was hit with a $60 million libel lawsuit by a former Marsh & McLennan Cos Inc. executive over a column posted on Slate.com concerning an insurance bid-rigging scandal.

William Gilman, a former Marsh managing director, said Mr. Spitzer acted with “actual malice” by suggesting in an Aug. 22, 2010, column titled “They Still Don't Get It” that he was guilty of crimes, including crimes of which he was never accused, after his conviction had been thrown out the prior month.

Slate.com is owned by Washington Post Co., and its parent Slate Group L.L.C. is a defendant in the case.

Mr. Gilman filed his complaint late Friday in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. A copy was made public Monday.

A Washington Post spokeswoman declined to comment. Mr. Spitzer and Mr. Gilman's lawyer, Jeffrey Liddle, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Gilman was among eight insurance executives indicted in September 2005 as Mr. Spitzer, then New York's attorney general, probed the alleged steering of clients to favored insurers in exchange for kickbacks.

MMC agreed in January 2005 to pay $850 million in a civil settlement with Mr. Spitzer.

While Mr. Gilman was found guilty in February 2008 on a felony antitrust charge after a bench trial, the judge threw out that conviction in July 2010, citing new evidence.

That case was dismissed in January. The other indicted executives either were acquitted or had their cases dismissed. Twenty-one others pleaded guilty.

Defamation alleged

In his complaint, Mr. Gilman said Mr. Spitzer defamed him in writing that “Marsh's behavior was a blatant abuse of law and market power: price-fixing, bid-rigging and kickbacks all designed to harm their customers and the market while Marsh and its employees pocketed the increased fees and kickbacks.”

Mr. Gilman also said Mr. Spitzer defamed him in writing that “many employees of Marsh” have been “convicted and sentenced to jail terms,” when none had. Mr. Spitzer had written the column after a recent critical editorial in The Wall Street Journal.

“While Mr. Mr. Spitzer's statements do not refer to Mr. Gilman by name,” the complaint said, “Mr. Gilman is readily identifiable as the subject of the defamatory comments.

“Mr. Spitzer was well aware of his own allegations as attorney general and the resolution of those allegations in favor of Mr. Gilman and yet, recklessly disregarded these facts,” it added.

Mr. Gilman is seeking at least $10 million of compensatory damages; $20 million in general damages, including damage to his reputation; and $30 million of punitive damages.

Last month, Time Warner Inc.'s CNN canceled Mr. Spitzer's low-rated television talk show “In the Arena” after less than one year on the air.

Mr. Spitzer resigned as New York's governor in March 2008 after being linked to a prostitution ring,