Agent Accused of Pocketing $105K in Comp Premiums
Monday, February 25, 2019 | 0
A Southern California insurance agent has been charged with 10 felony counts of stealing $105,000 in workers’ compensation premiums from small businesses, the state Insurance Department said Friday.
Former licensed agent Alan Amir Yousefi, 31, of Irvine, was charged with grand theft, insurance fraud and forgery. Yousefi used a variety of schemes targeting contractors and small businesses to steal workers’ compensation premiums, leaving his victims without insurance and at great financial risk, the department said.
Yousefi's license expired in 2016, according to the department.
Yousefi surrendered at the courthouse and was released after posting $100,000 bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday. The Orange County District Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case.
Investigators say Yousefi, doing business as Vanak Insurance Services, failed to place insurance for clients, and instead pocketed workers’ compensation premiums and used the cash for gambling, sports equipment and designer clothes. Contractors and small businesses, including a minority-owned business, were issued bogus certificates to cover up the alleged fraud.
A construction company that purchased a workers’ compensation policy from Yousefi discovered it did not have coverage after an injured employee filed a claim. The business suffered an uncovered loss and is now negotiating a costly settlement with the employee’s attorney, according to the department.
Other victims faced premium hikes as a result of gaps in coverage through no fault of their own, while another victim had its contractor’s license suspended by the Contractors State License Board because Yousefi failed to secure the company a workers’ compensation policy, the department said.
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