Insurance Journal posted a story in July about an agent that stole $100,000 from clients, credit card numbers and SSN’s. He deposited them in his mothers bank account. I’ve said this once and I’ll say it again – there needs to be a higher bar for people to obtain an insurance license. This is a shame and gives our industry a bad name. Today the California Department of Insurance gave an update and this so called insurance agent was sentenced to 180 days in jail. Sounds way too lenient to me! Also makes you wonder how the employer isn’t being held accountable. After all, didn’t they reconcile accounts to ensure payments were being posted to Trust?
Suren Hovhannisyan, 27, a licensed insurance agent of North Hollywood, Calif., was arrested at his residence this week on multiple felony counts of burglary, grand theft, and unauthorized use of access cards after allegedly scheming to embezzle over $100,000 from his employer and clients for his personal use.
After receiving a complaint from Hovhannisyan’s employer who suspected the embezzlement, the California Department of Insurance investigation division launched an investigation that reportedly showed Hovhannisyan offered fictitious discounts to policyholders if they paid him in cash for their automobile insurance. Rather than remitting the cash payments to his employer, Hovhannisyan allegedly deposited the money into his mother’s bank account for his personal use.
Read the full article from July here on Insurance Journal.
Latest update from the DOI: