Insurance Agent Sentenced to 2 years in Wire Fraud Case: Used Funds to Feed Gambling Habit
SEATTLE (AP) — A Snohomish, Washington, insurance agent was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud in the theft of premium payments from clients.
Vicki Boser, owner of InsuranceTek, Inc., pleaded guilty in August. At her sentencing Tuesday, she was also ordered to pay $273,137 in restitution to eight companies or insurance brokers she defrauded.
Boser used the money to support her gambling habit at area casinos, federal prosecutors said in a press release. At the sentencing hearing U.S. District Judge James L. Robart likened the conduct to a Ponzi scheme saying, “The conduct is classic in terms of embezzling from clients.”
Boser’s company specialized in helping small businesses that work in high-risk fields secure insurance policies to cover their operations. Clients included private investigators, process servers and security guard companies.
She was required to collect premium payments from the clients and pay them to the insurance companies, but prosecutors said she pocketed some of the payments, created false insurance certificates and led her clients to believe they were insured.
