DFS Charges Miami Insurance Agent with Filing False Claim on Diamond Ring

Florida authorities have arrested a Miami insurance agent and his accomplice for allegedly filing $22,000 in false insurance claims on a diamond ring that was never stolen.

David Abraham Jauregui was charged with insurance fraud and organized fraud last week after investigators uncovered a scheme to obtain renters’ insurance on the ring, the Florida Department of Financial Services said in a news release.

“It is extremely disappointing when the mastermind of this scheme is a Florida-licensed insurance agent who took advantage of his position to defraud others,” Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis said.

The scheme began, Patronis’ office explained, when Jauregui recruited Ronald Quintanilla to purchase renters’ insurance through the Assurant Group. Jauregui had recently been passed over for promotion by Assurant, the DFS said.

In 2018, Quintanilla filed a claim on a diamond ring that he said had been stolen. He submitted photos of the ring, along with two appraisal reports on the jewelry. Later that year, Jauregui filed another claim for a diamond ring.

The Assurant Group discovered that the photos of the rings listed in both claims were similar, along with the appraisal documents. It turned out that the photos were of Jauregui’s wife’s ring, DFS said.

“Detectives were able to verify the jewelry appraisal documents were fake, and that no such appraisals took place,” the DFS news release said. “Through additional investigative steps, it was also learned the diamond ring belonged to Jauregui’s wife and that Jauregui allegedly developed the scheme to defraud the Assurant Group out of more than $22,000 for not promoting him.”

Jauregui was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. If convicted, he faces up to 40 years in prison, DFS said. Once formal charges are filed, the DFS Insurance Agent & Agency Services will suspend Jauregui’s insurance license, Patronis said. Quintanilla also has been arrested.

Topics Agencies