Latest Fraud Headlines
All the headlines from our Fraud Topic Page, ordered by recency.
More Felony Charges for California Insurance Agents in Reported $748K Theft
Feb 11 2021 // Additional charges of felony grand theft were filed this week against licensed California insurance agents Robert Farmer, 66, of Camarillo, and Marion Urcan, 68, of Agoura Hills. The additional charges were filed after...
Former Michigan Agent Pleads Guilty in Auto Insurance Fraud Case
Feb 11 2021 // A former Flint, Michigan, insurance agent has pleaded guilty to selling or offering customers fake auto insurance certificates, state regulators said. Attorney General Dana Nessel said Dillen Leonard, 25, pleaded guilty to...
New York Man Pleads Guilty to Insurance Fraud Following Hit-and-Run Accident
Feb 9 2021 // A New York man has pleaded guilty to insurance fraud after being involved in a hit-and-run incident with a parked car in Hoboken, New Jersey. On Wednesday, February 3, 2021, Richard Hamedl of West New York pleaded guilty...
Banks See Rise Rise in ‘Smash-and-Grab’ Thefts from Automated Teller Machines
Feb 8 2021 // Convicted bank robber Willie Sutton, when asked why he robbed banks, famously said, “because that’s where the money is.” In today’s socially-distanced world, criminals increasingly are turning their...
Unlicensed Florida Agent Arrested Over Auto Insurance Fraud Scheme
Feb 5 2021 // A Florida woman allegedly acting as an insurance agent without a license was arrested last month after an investigation by the Florida Department of Financial Services Bureau of Insurance Fraud. According to a statement...
Former California Agent Arraigned for Allegedly Stealing from Clients
Feb 4 2021 // Former licensed insurance agent Laura Lopez, 37, of Long Beach, Calif., was arraigned on one felony count of grand theft after allegedly collecting over $97,000 in insurance premiums from clients and pocketing the...
SEC Sues Giuliani Associates Parnas, Correia Alleging Fraud Over Insurance Startup
Feb 4 2021 // The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued two associates of Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and lawyer for Donald Trump, alleging they defrauded investors of $2 million in a company that never got off...
Iowa Agent Again Charged with Insurance Fraud, Theft
Feb 3 2021 // A suburban Des Moines, Iowa, insurance agent has been charged with multiple felony counts after state officials say he collected thousands of dollars in premiums for nonexistent insurance policies after his license was...
California Warehouse Worker Arraigned for Alleged Workers’ Comp Fraud
Feb 3 2021 // Crescencio Velasco Covarrubias, 45, of Button Willow, Calif., was arraigned this week on multiple felony counts of insurance fraud after allegedly failing to disclose prior work-related injuries in order to collect...
Revenue-Seeking Cyber Criminals Increasingly Target Businesses Over Individuals
Feb 2 2021 // Cyber criminals shifted away from stealing individual consumers’ information in 2020 to focus on bigger, more profitable attacks on businesses, according to a report from the Identity Theft Resource Center. The...
Cryptocurrency Crime Drops in 2020 but ‘Decentralized Finance’ Losses Rise: Study
Jan 29 2021 // Losses from cryptocurrency theft, hacks and fraud fell 57% last year to $1.9 billion, as market participants boosted security systems, but crime in the “decentralized finance” space continued to grow, a report...
Auto Theft Jumped in 2020
Jan 27 2021 // Auto theft appears to have increased considerably in 2020 compared to 2019, reversing two years of auto theft declines. A preliminary analysis by the National Insurance Crime Bureau shows there were 873,080 auto thefts in...
Teen Accused of Stealing Nearly $1M from Georgia Supermarket
Jan 25 2021 // A suburban Atlanta teenager has been arrested on charges that he defrauded a supermarket where he worked of nearly $1 million over a two-week period. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports 19-year-old Tre Brown was...
California Insurance Agents Arraigned in $687K Grand Theft Scheme
Jan 25 2021 // Licensed insurance agents Robert Farmer, 65, of Camarillo, Calif., and Marion Urcan, 67, of Agoura Hills, Calif., were arraigned in mid-January in Los Angeles County Superior Court on multiple counts of grand theft after...
California Construction Worker Charged with Workers’ Comp Fraud
Jan 22 2021 // Jose Zepeda, 45, of Fresno, Calif., self-surrendered this week on multiple felony counts of insurance fraud and attempted perjury after filing a workers’ compensation insurance claim and allegedly misleading the...
California COVID-19 Benefits Fraud, Cyber Attack Could Reach $9.8B
Jan 20 2021 // California may have paid out nearly $10 billion in phony coronavirus unemployment claims – more than double the previous estimate – with some of that money going to organized crime in Russia, China and other countries,...
California Insurance Agents Arraigned in $687K Grand Theft Scheme
Jan 12 2021 // Licensed insurance agents Robert Farmer, 65, of Camarillo, Calif., and Marion Urcan, 67, of Agoura Hills, Calif., were arraigned this week in Los Angeles County Superior Court on multiple counts of grand theft after...
Introducing the 2020 Insurance Fraud Hall of Shame
Jan 11 2021 // The year 2020 would not be complete without a recap of America’s worst insurance fraud crimes. Homeless New Yorkers targeted in a $31.7 million slip-and-fall ring. A sober-home mogul trades sex for drugs. A...
Ethics and Insurance Fraud
Jan 7 2021 // It has been reported that the federal government’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program has been victimized by fraud. This program was designed to extend unemployment insurance benefits to self-employed...
Two Businesses, Owners Charged with Fraud Against New York State Insurance Fund
Jan 5 2021 // Two businesses and their owners have been charged with fraud against the New York State Insurance Fund (NYSIF). Manuel Sanchez and his business Lagos Construction have been charged with grand larceny and other crimes for...
