An unlicensed Los Angeles insurance agent, Jose Miguel Marquez, 23, has been sentenced to one year of summary probation and ordered to reimburse the California Department of Insurance (CDI) $10,000 for investigative costs for his crime of theft of premiums.
Marquez pled guilty to one misdemeanor count of theft of funds, after an investigation by the CDI Investigation Division.
According to investigators, Marquez committed his crimes at Unitrans Insurance Services, where he collected $18,000 during an 18-month period from several truck driver clients for commercial truck insurance. Instead of sending their payments to insurance companies, Marquez kept the money and issued bogus proof of insurance documents. To make the policies appear legitimate, he used real insurance company names that specialize in providing insurance to the trucking industry. The companies Marquez used include the following: Liberty Mutual, Sutter Insurance Co., General Security Insurance, TOPA Insurance, Adriatic Insurance and Ranger Insurance Co..
According to CDI, Marquez targeted Latino truck drivers and mislead them to believe they were receiving bonafide commercial trucker policies. Since the monies collected were not used to issue policies, the truckers were in great jeopardy by driving without valid insurance including liability, physical damage and cargo coverage. After being contacted by the CDI, Carlos Vasquez Marquez, a licensed agent and brother of Jose Marquez, refunded the premium to the victims. However, by law because there was an initial theft, a crime was committed. The case was prosecuted by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Auto Insurance Fraud Division.
Topics Fraud
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