Insurance Fraud Investigator

Colorado insurance agent fined $1.2 million in fraud case

A former Colorado insurance agent accused of consumer and insurance fraud has been hit with a $1.245 million fine by an administrative law judge.

The Colorado Attorney General’s Office also has obtained a warrant for the arrest of Salies “Kwann” Perry , office spokesman Mike Saccone said Thursday. Perry’s last known residence was in Thornton, but his current whereabouts are unknown.

Perry’s fine, issued on June 24, came in connection with alleged violations of Colorado insurance law, including fraud and committal of unfair trade practices, according to a news release Thursday from the Colorado Division of Insurance.

The fine was accompanied by an order to pay $4,678.57 in restitution to Bankers Life and Casualty Co.

Bankers Life notified the Division of Insurance in early 2010 that Perry had submitted about 50 fraudulent applications for life insurance in 2009 and 2010 in order to receive advanced commissions from the company, the news release stated. Those applications included false Social Security numbers, addresses and bank account numbers.

The insurance division’s compliance and investigations section said it also found that Perry had failed to disclose his criminal background in his application for an insurance producer’s license. That license was suspended in November.

In his decision last week, Administrative Law Judge Robert Spencer permanently revoked Perry’s license and ruled that he had committed 415 violations of the state’s insurance laws.

Paula Sisneros , compliance and investigations section director, thanked Bankers Life investigators for their help.

“They identified a potential problem very quickly, did a thorough and detailed investigation and brought the matter to our attention at the Division of Insurance so that we could take appropriate steps to protect Colorado,” Sisneros said in the news release.

Insurance fraud investigation uncovers a tax scheme using dead ...

It started as an investigation into fake insurance cards and ended up being an alleged criminal conspiracy involving false tax returns and the social security numbers of dead children.

Initially Florida insurance investigator Kevin Morris was working to bust those who sell the fake insurance cards.

"There are thousands of people who are driving the streets of Hillsborough County that are holding insurance cards which are worthless pieces of paper," he explains.

Morris says many bought the cards after seeing an ad in a coupon book, offering cheap auto insurance. The investigation took Morris to a pawn shop on Hillsborough and 40th Avenue, where he arrested Keaira Tiller.

Morris says she drove to her so-called "mobile insurance office" -- which was her car -- into the pawn shop parking lot and sold a fake insurance card.

"It was not an insurance card, but a useless piece of paper that people pay $150 to $200 for," he says.

When Morris arrested Tiller, he discovered notebooks filled with names and social security numbers, as well as lists of children who had died. The list included the birthdays, addresses and social security numbers of the dead children.

Morris then discovered Tiller was apparently working with Howayda Hamdan, a former teller at a Regents Bank in Land O'Lakes. He says they both took the social security numbers of the dead children, filed false income tax returns and then placed them in fake bank accounts that Hamdan set up.

Morris says they filed the taxes online, and the money was then deposited into the accounts.

But the story doesn't end there. Investigators were next led to a small insurance agency in Temple Terrace. That's where Bella Jenkins, a licensed agent, was placed under arrest.

Jenkins is accused of selling insurance policies, but not turning the money over to the insurance company. Two men, Torrance Blake and David Ball, were also arrested. Authorities say they were working with Jenkins, but didn't have insurance licenses.

"What started out as an insurance fraud investigation has turned into a major investigation involving the Secret Service that ties all the people I arrested," says Morris.

Detectives say there's no question they're all working together. As it turns out, Jenkins also got her leads from the same coupon book Tilden did, and Jenkins is the ex-wife of Tilden's father.

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