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Press Release

Insurance agent charged with wire fraud for scheme to steal $750,000 in insurance premiums from clients across the country

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Washington
Allegedly stole premium payments and allowed insurance policies to lapse without knowledge of clients

Seattle - A 57-year-old Snohomish, Washington, insurance agent was charged today in U.S. District Court in Seattle with five counts of wire fraud for her theft of approximately $750,000 in premium payments from various insurance clients, announced U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran.  VICKI BOSER, who owned and operated InsuranceTek, Inc., appeared on an indictment in U.S. District Court in Seattle today.  BOSER is charged with pocketing premium payments from insurance clients and providing fake certificates of insurance to some of those companies.  BOSER entered a plea of ‘not guilty,’ and trial was set for January 19, 2021.

According to records filed in the case, between 2014 and 2016, BOSER defrauded various clients in high-risk insurance fields.  BOSER founded InsuranceTek, Inc., in 2003 and specialized in assisting small businesses that work in high-risk fields‑‑including private investigators, process servers, mortgage and field service companies, and security guard companies‑‑in securing insurance policies to cover their business operations.  BOSER would find companies willing to insure the high-risk companies, and if necessary, find a company to finance the premium payments.  BOSER was required by law to collect the premium payments from the clients and pay them over to the insurance companies.  Instead, she pocketed some of the payments, created false insurance certificates, and led the high-risk companies to believe they were insured.  In some instances, the insurance companies cancelled the insurance for lack of payment, but BOSER received the notice and hid it from the insured.  The insurance premiums were tens of thousands of dollars‑‑in one case more than $100,000.  BOSER used the money for her personal expenses, including spending a great deal of money at a casino resort.

BOSER had clients across the country‑‑many small family owned businesses that placed a great deal of trust in BOSER.  Court records detail the frauds regarding an Illinois-based property inspection business, and Ohio-, Tennessee-, and Texas-based businesses that maintain foreclosed homes.  Some of the clients only learned their insurance policies had been cancelled when they contacted the companies about renewing the policies.  The investigation was triggered when the Washington State Insurance Commissioner’s Office received complaints.

Wire fraud is punishable by up to twenty years in prison.

The charges contained in the indictment are only allegations.  A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The case is being investigated by the FBI and the Criminal Investigative Division of the Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lyndsie Schmalz.

 

Contact

Press contact for the U.S. Attorney’s Office is Communications Director Emily Langlie at (206) 553-4110 or Emily.Langlie@usdoj.gov.

Updated November 13, 2020

Topic
Financial Fraud