The owner of a fraudulent insurance agency will serve prison time after he was convicted of illegally collecting over $3.7 million in insurance premiums without actually securing any insurance coverage.
John Kill, the 63-year-old owner of Appeal Insurance Agency LLC, worked with just shy of 800 trucking companies over the course of a year, telling them that he would assist in securing insurance coverage from companies including Lloyd’s of London. Carriers would send him their insurance payments, but instead of passing them along to Lloyds, he would pocket the money without insuring the carrier at all.
Sometimes Kill went so far as to actually pay out insurance money to companies who made claims, paying them back with premium payments from other carriers.
“The defendant held himself out as an honest broker to hundreds of trucking companies, but he simply pocketed their premium payments instead of securing legitimate insurance coverage,” said a U.S. Attorney that worked on the case. “His scam tricked clients into believing they had proper insurance coverage and endangered small businesses operating in more than 20 states.”
For his crimes, the court has ordered Kill to serve only four years in prison and to pay back approximately $1.23 million to his victims, about a third of the amount that he had stolen.
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Source: fbi, bizjournals, ajc, canadianunderwriter
Image source: sodahead
Robert says
Really so he steals $3.7mil doses some part of four years in prison and pays only $1.23mil back. What am I missing here. Or should I say sign me up for that. He is doing less time then most petty drug criminals. Our justice system sucks.
Infosaur says
I wonder how long he could have gotten away with it? He probably had enough income to pay the occasional claim. Heck he could do what ALL the insurers do from time to time, come up with some wacky reason to deny coverage.