A former Tennessee insurance agent facing more than 70 counts of insurance fraud has reached a settlement with the Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance (TDCI) barring her from practicing insurance activities in the state and requiring payment of civil penalties.
Under the agreement announced TDCI Jan. 24, Murfreesboro, Tenn.-based Kelsey Ketron’s insurance producer license has been revoked and she is ordered to pay $23,000 in civil penalties. She has also agreed to cease and desist from any insurance-related activities requiring a license from the department.
Ketron is required to pay installments of $5,750 over the next four years.
Kutron, who also served as a political campaign treasurer and Tennessee Republican Party committeewoman, is also accused of stealing from her father’s campaign and pocketing insurance money from policyholders who used her family’s insurance company.
In May, TDCI said a customer had complained to the department that Ketron had taken their premium money and not acquired coverage. TDCI also found Ketron was operating without an insurance license, as hers expired in 2016. TDCI ordered Ketron cease and desist “all such unlawful activity to prevent [Ketron] from continuing to engage in insurance related activities while not being properly licensed, closing insurance policies without the policyholders’ knowledge or consent, misleading consumers with regard to the existence of their insurance policies, and misappropriating premium payments.”
A local TV station later reported other customers had come forward alleging they also paid for policies that they found out later were not covered.
She was indicted on more than 70 charges related to insurance fraud, including money laundering, forgery and impersonating a licensed professional in November after an investigation centered on Ketron’s practices when she served as vice president of her father Bill Ketron’s agency Universal International Insurance in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Her criminal trial is set to begin in April.
She is also accused of stealing more than $65,000 from his various campaign accounts and his political action committee. She was treasurer for his Bill Ketron for County Mayor campaign account, his Senate campaign account and his quest political action committee.
The Daily News Journal said Ketron faces the following charges, according to Mursfreesboro police:
- 30 counts of impersonating a licensed professional
- 14 counts of money laundering
- 12 counts of aggravated perjury
- five counts of fraudulent insurance acts of $250,000 or more
- five counts of forgery of $250,000 or more
- two counts of fraudulent insurance acts between $60,000 and $250,000
- one count of a fraudulent insurance act between $10,000 and $59,999
- one count of theft of property between $10,000 and $60,000
- one count of theft of property between $60,000 and $250,000.
Ketron resigned from her GOP role in July, days after the authorities including the Secret Service searched her home and the insurance office owned by her father, who serves as mayor of Rutherford County.
TDCI said its settlement with Ketron shows that the department “takes consumer complaints seriously and will seek to take disciplinary action when wrongdoing is discovered.”
Ketron’s attorney told a local news station they were pleased the matters with TDCI have been resolved and that Ketron had not admitted any wrongdoing in the settlement.
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