Broker Accused of Pocketing Commercial Policy Premiums

Friday, April 27, 2018 | 0

An insurance broker has been charged with insurance fraud for allegedly failing to submit to insurance companies $93,444 in payments for commercial policies between 2014 and 2016.

Mark Bleier
(Pennsylvania AG's office)

Mark Bleier, 44, of Pittsburgh, former owner of Steel City Insurance, is charged with insurance fraud and other crimes, the state attorney general’s office announced on Wednesday. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

Following a referral from the Pennsylvania Department of Insurance, fraud investigators in the attorney general’s office discovered Bleier allegedly failed to remit insurance payments for at least nine businesses.

In one case, a commercial customer made a $38,984 down payment to of Bleier for various insurance coverage for his company. The company questioned the policy’s status a few weeks later after it didn't receive any information on the coverage.

Bleier provided the company with a certificate of liability insurance, but the company never received any specific policy information from the insurer, according to the attorney general’s office.

Two months after paying for the policies, one of the company’s employees was involved in a head-on collision while driving a company vehicle. The other driver suffered serious injuries. The company’s owner called Bleier, who didn’t respond until several days later, saying he would handle it.

During this time, the owner discovered that his company did not have the insurance coverage he believed he purchased through Bleier. Bleier had allegedly never submitted a change-of-broker request, and the company was still covered under a previously purchased policy obtained through another broker.

The claim was settled with the injured driver for $1 million.