TRENTON
- Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Criminal
Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor announced
that a New York City insurance agent has
pleaded guilty to attempting to defraud
two insurance companies in a life insurance
scheme.
According
to Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Riza
Dagli, Pape Michael Seck, 39, of New York,
N.Y., pleaded guilty yesterday to an accusation
charging him with two counts of second-degree
insurance fraud before Superior Court Judge
Joseph V. Isabella in Hudson County. Under
the plea agreement, the state will recommend
that he be sentenced to three years in state
prison. Seck also must forfeit his license
as an insurance agent in New Jersey and
pay a $10,000 civil insurance fraud fine.
In
pleading guilty, Seck, an insurance agent,
admitted that between May 22, 2008 and July
27, 2009, he submitted false applications
to Prudential Life Insurance Company and
Aviva Life Insurance Company for life insurance
policies on behalf of Mansour Seck, listing
Pape Seck as Mansour Seck’s son and
the beneficiary under the policies. He admitted
that his father, whose name is Mansour Seck,
did not apply for the life insurance, nor
did anyone by that name.
Deputy
Chief Counsel Norma R. Evans took the guilty
plea for the Office of the Insurance Fraud
Prosecutor. Judge Isabella scheduled sentencing
for June 7.
The
investigation by the Office of the Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor revealed that the defendant,
acting as an insurance agent, applied for
life insurance policies from the two companies
in the amount of $7 million each. Although
Mansour Seck is the name of his father,
the defendant, in filing the applications,
also used identifying information, including
a Social Security number, from two other
real people named Mansour Seck, one a retired
dignitary from Senegal in Africa and the
other a New Jersey resident. Mansour Seck
is a common name in the country of Senegal.
Neither insurance company issued a policy.
Pape
Seck admitted that the following documents,
all of which were false, were filed to fraudulently
support the life insurance applications:
- A
letter dated July 22, 2008, that was purportedly
from a financial advisor of Mansour Seck,
asserting that Mansour Seck had assets
in excess of $10 million and that he was
able to pay a $300,000 premium from his
current income and savings;
- An
HSBC Account Summary for the purported
checking and savings accounts of Mansour
Seck indicating a total balance of $4,311,035.57;
- A
letter submitted to Prudential dated July
2, 2008, purportedly from a doctor who
reported that he had performed a nuclear
stress test on Mansour Seck;
- A
letter from another doctor, indicating
that she performed a Magnetic Resonance
Angiography on Mansour Seck on July 4,
2008; and
- A
2006 U.S. Individual Income Tax Return,
Form 1040 for Mansour Seck.
The
accusation to which Seck pleaded guilty
was filed by the Division of Criminal Justice’s
Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor,
which investigates and prosecutes both civil
and criminal insurance fraud related cases.
The
Department of Banking and Insurance routinely
assists the Office of the Insurance Fraud
Prosecutor with the investigation and prosecution
of licensed insurance agents. This assistance
enables the State to coordinate criminal
investigations and prosecutions with any
imposition of licensing sanctions in order
to protect the public.
Detective
L. Cross, Civil Investigator James Stavola,
Deputy Attorney General Nicole Rizzolo and
Deputy Chief Counsel Norma R. Evans were
assigned to the investigation into this
case. Acting Prosecutor Dagli thanked the
Prudential Life Insurance Company, the Aviva
Life Insurance Company, U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement, and Investigator
Linda Gleghorn from the Department of Banking
and Insurance for their assistance in the
investigation.
“It
is particularly troubling when licensed
insurance agents engage in fraud,”
said Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Riza
Dagli. “The public places a great
deal of trust in licensed insurance agents
and expects them to adhere to high ethical
standards. My office will continue to aggressively
investigate and prosecute cases of this
type.”
Acting
Fraud Prosecutor Dagli noted that some important
cases have started with anonymous tips.
People who are concerned about insurance
cheating and have information about a fraud
can report it anonymously by calling the
toll-free hotline 1-877-55-FRAUD
or visiting the Web site www.njinsurancefraud.org.
State regulations permit an award to be
paid to an eligible person who provides
information that leads to an arrest, prosecution
and conviction for insurance fraud.
The
Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor was
established by the Automobile Insurance
Cost Reduction Act of 1998. The office is
the centralized state agency that investigates
and prosecutes both civil and criminal insurance
fraud, as well as Medicaid fraud.
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