Agent Sentenced to 7 Months for Selling Fake Work Comp Policies

Friday, May 6, 2016 | 0

A Pennsylvania insurance agent was sentenced this week to seven months in prison for selling fake workers' compensation insurance policies to businesses in the Scranton area, according to a report by WNEP Television.

Alfonso Sebia of Lehighton, owner of America Coast to Coast Business Solutions, was charged last September with defrauding the owner of MAC Sign Systems in Scranton. In December, prosecutors added new charges, bringing the total to 119 counts of insurance fraud, theft and forgery, according to a report by the Standard Speaker newspaper.

The newspaper said Sebia charged Workforce Resources, a temporary staffing firm, $31,083 in insurance premiums and provided 49 certificates of insurance purporting coverage that didn't actually exist. He billed Sargent Enterprises, an asbestos removal company in Jim Thorpe, $127,279.90 for insurance coverage and provided 61 fraudulent certificates of insurance coverage.

Sebia also charged Shady Tree, a landscaping company in West Chester, $22,721.90 for premiums but did not actually purchase coverage for the company, according to the report.

WNEP reported that Sebia told the court that he made an "error in judgment." In addition to a seven-month term at Lackawanna County Prison, he was ordered to pay $200,000 restitution to his victims, according to the television station.