Florida Insurance Agent Caught Stealing $131k From CustomersPolice

An insurance agent in south Florida was caught swiping more than $131,000 in premiums, leaving several customers uninsured after Hurricane Ian struck the state in 2022, according to official reports.

The man, Naser Al-Sweity of Boca Raton, was booked into Palm Beach County jail earlier this week on 23 charges ranging from fraud and misappropriation of insurance funds to fraudulent use of identification information, according to the Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS).

According to the state DFS, Al-Sweity is currently appointed with several insurance companies, including Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Co., Citizens Property Insurance Corp., American Platinum Property and Casualty Insurance, Granada Insurance and two others, as reported by the Insurance Journal. His contract with Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Co. ends in 2024, while the others last through early 2025.

The DFS was first alerted to Al-Sweity's activity when a property owner contacted the department's Disaster Fraud Action Strike team after attempting to file an insurance claim on his commercial property damaged by Hurricane Ian. The customer, who had paid his premiums in full, was told that his policy had been canceled before October 2022 due to non-payment of premiums.

The property owner, according to the DFS, had paid $26,000 in November 2021 for property and flood insurance on a multi-unit apartment complex in Charlotte County to Al-Sweity's agency, Florida P&C Insurance Agency.

After investigating Al-Sweity's activities, the DFS found that the insurance agent had collected annual insurance premiums from seven different customers over a two-year period. They found that Al-Sweity collected the premiums and then financed each of them through a premium finance agreement without their knowledge, misappropriating more than $131,000 in funds.

Al-Sweity never made payments on the customers' policies, leading to all seven losing their insurance coverage. One of them, according to the DFS, had to pay $1 million in repairs after Ian struck.

Hurricane Ian, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm in September 2022, caused up to $65 billion in insured losses and $17 billion in uninsured losses, according to reinsurance company Swiss Re.

"Al-Sweity never made payments on the policies, which led to all seven customers losing insurance coverage. In total, Naser Al-Sweity pocketed more than $131,000 in insurance premiums," a statement by the DFS reads.

"Insurance agents are supposed to be trusted arbiters between the insured and their insurance company," said the DFS head and Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis in a statement.

"Agents who take advantage of their clients' trust not only deserve to lose their license but deserve to sit behind the cold bars of a jail cell for a long time."

During Al-Sweity's first appearance in court, Circuit Judge Donald W. Hafele increased the insurance agent's bond from $15,000 to $50,000 on one count, while the 22 other counts' new bonds range from $3,000 to $5,000, as reported by WPTV.

"As far as my review here at first appearance and the nature and extent of the alleged criminal activity and the scheme that was apparently involving this man. I think $50,000 is fair," Judge Hafele said.

Al-Sweity tried to speak but instead was ushered out of the courtroom. His attorney did let him know what it was going to cost him to get out.

If convicted of the charges currently against him, Al-Sweity could face up to 30 years in prison.

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