Ep 06: $300K in Unearned Commissions & The 8-Year Fraud Spree

Welcome to Fraud Facts and Life Insurance with Agent Verified, the podcast that dives into the wild world of life insurance gone wrong. Every week, we peel back the curtain on real cases of financial chaos and help you spot the red flag before it's too late. We'll share what went wrong, why it happened, and how to protect yourself by working with the right agent. Hey, let's face it. These stories might have ended very differently if only they'd used agentverified.com hey. Hey. Welcome back.

Welcome back to Fraud Facts and Life.

Insurance with Agent Verified.

That's right. We're here, Betsy and Spencer, and we. We left you hanging on quite a story that had so many elements. So let's dig right back into it, to this fraud story and see where it goes, because I feel like I could go a lot of places. But let's see. Let's see what it is.

Agent verified.com Two former insurance agents were arrested Thursday on felony charges for allegedly falsifying life insurance applications to collect over $300,000 in unearned commissions. Ali Kakande of Los Angeles and Suleiman Lutal of Woodland Hills were taken into custody by U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, and the California Department of Insurance. They face charges of insurance fraud, identity theft, money laundering, grand theft, and forgery. Investigators claim that before becoming licensed agents, the duo submitted around 70 fraudulent applications under another licensee's name. Blue tail earned over $80,000 in unearned commissions. After obtaining their own licenses in 2012, they continued their scheme, submitting 89 more fraudulent applications and collecting over $138,000 in unearned commissions. They also used at least three other licensees names to submit over 70 additional fraudulent applications, gaining more than $90,000 in commissions. The applications contained fabricated information, including false occupations, income and signatures. Kakandi's bail is set at $470,000 and lutails at $370,000.

The moral of the story is you should always make sure that your life insurance agent is verified on agentverified.com if you need a life insurance agent, choose from thousands of agents and brokers by visiting ww.agentverified.com agent verified. Licensed, insured Verified.

What in my goodness. What?

Wow.

Oh, wow. So much happening here. So much fraudulent activity happening here. Like writing without a license, riding under somebody else's license.

That like, that's like literally being fraudulent before you get into the industry. I've never heard of that.

Like what? Okay, so let's under someone else's license, like, did that. I Mean, what would happen to those people's license? Okay. Oh, my gosh. All right, let's. Let's watch again, and then we can comment from there.

Former insurance agents were arrested Thursday on felony charges for allegedly falsifying life insurance applications to collect over $300,000 in unearned commissions. Ali Kakande of Los Angeles and Suleiman Lutal of Woodland Hills were taken into custody by U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, and the California Department of Insurance. They face charges of insurance fraud, identity theft, money laundering, grand theft, and forgery.

That's a lot of charges.

That's a lot of charges to not be us. You, like, that's just nuts. Like, you risk deportation. Like, you're risking everything.

Everything. Well, and then it's. I mean, last. Last time we talked about money laundering and that being a thing that we as agents have to watch out for, and it's like, wow, I get it. Like, people are really doing this.

Yeah.

I mean, I know. I mean, I know they are. That's why we have this podcast. But know it's like, for people that are out there doing the right thing, it. It's like, do you know how well you can do if you just do it the right way and then you don't ever have to worry about going to prison.

Yeah. Getting deported. That's crazy.

Like, oh, my word.

Investigators claim that before becoming licensed agents, the duo submitted around 70 fraudulent applications under another licensee's name.

Like, right there. That's like, 70 applications without, like, guys, I'm speechless. I've never. I've never heard of a unlicensed. Like, they. This is, like, premeditated fraud. I guess that's what conspiracy is. I mean, like, if I get away with it 70 times under your license, I might as well go in and get my own license and do it some more. Like, this is crazy.

Like, let's just. Let's just keep defrauding people over and over and over. I mean, I'm trying to imagine what goes on in someone's head to be.

Like, I think that's the hard part of the pot. Like, we would never do such a thing. The agents on agent verified. Never don't, like, don't do such a thing. But to get into the mind of, like, we did very well for ourselves in the industry, and if you want to make $300,000, like, why do you. You can do that. You're in an industry that can make millions. So you got caught up in 70. I personally have written over 2000 applications on my own pen. Imagine if you got caught up in the money at 70. Like that's crazy that.

I mean, because think of how much it's like, okay, hey, I got it here. But they lost so much for the rest of their life because they were trying to get a bunch right now. Like so much lost opportunity. Like, just do the right thing. Because even if you're like not a great person, like you can actually make a lot of money in life insurance by doing the right thing.

So yeah, even if that's also why.

These, like, that's why these are just so crazy. It's like, it just doesn't make any Sense.

Earned over $80,000 in unearned commissions after obtaining their own licenses in 2012, they continued their scheme, submitting 89 more fraudulent applications and collecting over $138,000 in unearned commissions. They also used at least three other licensees names to submit over 70 additional fraudulent applications, gaining more than $90,000 in commissions. The applications contained fabricated information.

Okay, yeah, I know, I know we keep talking about the money part of it here, but you know, Spence, think about the agents that we know that are making that amount of money, those commit that they're trying to, you know, now that they fraudulently obtained, they're make. We know people that are making 50, 60, 100,000 in a month. Like, like that's what, that's what you can come in and make in life insurance. And now they're, you know, help so many families, so many families. And the number only grows as time goes on. So it's not like, oh, I'm gonna get it, you know, get this much for this month and then it's never like it's something that's gonna keep increasing over time. So now they've, it's like they've gone and got this just to get that much for like one, one moment in time. And now, now they've lost it all. Like, it's just crazy.

Including false occupations, income and signatures. Kakandi's bail is set at $470,000 and Lutale's at $370,000.

That's more than what they tried to skim. Yeah, I should laugh, but that's kind of funny.

The moral of the story is you should always make sure that your life insurance agent is verified on agent verified.

Always, always, always.

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There's some. There are some interesting people out there, but yes, always make sure they're on Agent verified dot com. You don't go through all that additional verification to. Because. Because then you know that people are looking after you, right? People that go and do and defraud others. Like, they're always looking for ways around and you know, oh, I'm.

I'll.

I'll sign this or I'll do that. Like, no, that should never be happening. Like, you know, I've. I remember one time I was like a new agent, right? So I'm driving around the hills of East Tennessee because we're. I was like, if I could just not like, overturn my car on one of these hills, I will be good. So I'm not a great driver. And then I'm driving at night. I don't know where I was going. And then at one house, I forgot a signature that was like, you got to go all. And I had to go all the way back. And it's like, you know, sure, there's that thing in mind. You could just sign it. Like, we've all. We've. Sure, we've all thought it, but you just don't do it. Like, you can't do that.

Can't do it. Luckily, now we have the. The docusigns of the world and the carriers not accept it. But, oh, my gosh, I would lose my mind. Yeah, that. That would be the worst. Driving all the way out there for a signature. So.

But thankfully, it only happened once.

I was like, yeah, that's all it takes.

It only happens once.

That's all it takes is one time that you got to drive back out there for a signature. Awesome. Betsy. Bar. What's going on in the Bar Agency.

Bar Agency. That's right, man. We have been. We've been writing some policies. We've been working on getting some agents hired. But I wanted to talk today about some policies that we got put in place. I had. One of my newer agents was decided to. They were out talking to their neighbor, which I thought was really cool. They were talking, you know, just out there talking to their neighbor and, you know, saying, hey, what are you doing? Now she talked about how she was with the Aloha program. Oh, what is it that, you know. So just regular neighbor talk says, yeah, you know, we, we call through people that have asked for life insurance and we get them covered. You know, we help protect their mortgage, protect their income if something were to happen and picked up. What do you mean? Tell me more. So anyways, through the conversation with the neighbor, just, you know, talking about her job, realized, hey, it's a young family. You know, mom, dad got three kids, they've got a mortgage, you know, both parents work. And so if something were to happen to either one of them, the house could be at risk. Where would the income be? You know, that would be pretty, pretty rough. And so she ended up talking to the family and put some term insurance on in place for both the mom and the dad. And so, you know, I, I, you know, Spence, I love doing a lot of the advanced markets and, and I have a lot of team members that do that. But we always tell them, like, don't overlook the power of term life insurance. Because when you're talking to someone in their 30s, even their 40s, like to get a million, even 2 million sometimes, or 500,000, like larger amounts of life insurance, you can get term insurance for like really, really reasonable rates. And so it's not like it's something that's going to break the family's bank. And okay, now if that dad gets cancer, if the mom has a stroke, if there's a heart attack, if there's any kind of health issue, they're not going to have to worry about losing their house. The life insurance, the term, it comes, you know, all of ours come with living benefits. So they'll be able to pay that out. The insurance company will pay them, send them a check, they can use that to pay the bills. You know, some, one of the spouses needed to cut back hours at work so they could take care of the family. You know, all that stuff is just embedded in the life insurance policy. And then God forbid, let's say the husband passes away. And now the wife's gotta, you know, keep working, keep shouldering everything on their own. She can pay off the mortgage or she could use that to keep making mortgage payments. Kids don't have to move like, okay, because all of a sudden if daddy's gone, like, that's a huge, like, that's a lot for a kid to have to deal with if your dad passes away. And so then having to move on top of that, like, so anyway, I love that, I loved it for this new agent because now she gets to see, she got to see her neighbor get so excited about it, like in. And this Was in person, of course, because they live right next to each other. But she said too, that, like, now they'll be out. And she goes, we're still protected. We're still protected.

I love that.

Love that.

That is good.

What about you guys?

I like term just, you know, for the. For you guys out there listening, because there's so much life insurance convo, and you got different companies that square. Square term only and whole apart. Like, guys, term is great. It's just temporary. Right? Term is just, you know, the best analogy I ever heard was from another agent, Ms. Jones, and she said, said, do you, when you go on vacation, do you only take one pair of shoes with you on vacation? Now, when me, when we went to Mexico, Betsy, I literally had a suitcase of just shoes. So when she said that, I was like, and my wife had a suitcase. Now she was able to put her shoes within her, but I had a suitcase of just shoes. And she says, well, insurance is like taking shoes on a vacation. You have your term. Your term is when you know you're going to the beach. It's for only. It's only for just that short period of time. Think of it like going to the beach, but you don't wear your flip flops to dinner, do you? And that was like, wow. So anytime I can explain, anytime I can explain it, I always ask the client, when was the last time you went on a vacation or went on a trip and said, did you only take one pair of shoes? And I think that's the problem with the industry. Like, you got companies out there that, you know, expect people to think that they should wear their beach shoes to dinner. Right. And the term is just, you know. Right. Like you said, pay the mortgage large amount, large amounts for a certain amount of time, and then you can upgrade to permanent or transition to getting another term for more time. So really love, really love that. Yeah, Betsy, you hopped on living benefits, and that's really what my team was really focused on. This, this time is the living benefits, where we call it accelerated death benefits, where we have these policies where they're not forcing you to die in order to see use of it. And a lot of people don't know about these types of policies. And you're able to get them on the term side and the permanent side, but having those living benefits for new agents to be like, wow, I have something where 99% of the country does not know about. And we can use them and use them, and people do use them. Like, we hear stories all the time. People have, you know, got told they had cancer or had strokes and out of work and next thing you know they got this policy that in their mind was used to if they died. But they're able to use the cash on it to pay bills, to pay mortgages, pay, you know, continue to pay their living expenses because now they're taking a fight on their health. So yeah, we did a bunch of those this week. So super excited with the team and yeah, man, rolling.

So nice.

All right. You have to knock out some bills, you know, so you guys check out and after we're back, you'll see the next next fraud story.

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Verified.Com Former insurance broker Karen Marie Dondenville of Mission Viejo pleaded guilty to 90 counts including grand theft, insurance fraud, financial elder abuse and forgery for stealing more than $180,000 in premiums from 32 victims over an eight year period. As a former insurance broker, Don Danville collected premium payments from her clients but failed to provide them with insurance coverage. Instead, she issued fraudulent documents to cover up her actions. Don Danville was ordered to pay more than $330,000 in restitution to the victims, including those who suffered uncovered losses due to her fraudulent actions. She was sentenced to three years of formal probation and faces up to 33 years in prison if she violates the terms of her probation. Don Danville's illegal activities caused many of her clients insurance policies to be canceled for non payment, leaving them without coverage. Despite having her license revoked in 2019, Donville continued to engage in fraudulent insurance transactions, prompting the Department of Insurance to issue two cease and desist orders. In 2021, the department imposed a $20,000 penalty on her for these illegal activities. The case was prosecuted by the Orange County District Attorney's Office Major Fraud Unit.

The moral of the story is you should always make sure that your life insurance agent is verified on agentverified.com if you need a life Insurance agent. Choose from thousands of agents and brokers by www.agentverified.com. agent verified. Licensed, insured verified.

Wow.

I feel like this is the poster child for why agent verified is important.

A little bit.

This could be this. Like, hey, why did you feel that there was a need to create Agent Verified? Let me direct you to this story of this particular lady. All right.

108 and only three years. Man, that's. That's crazy.

Again, she's. Oh, man. When she's collecting, she. No, no, don't do it. Don't do if. Don't do it. We. I feel like we say this almost every episode. Don't give your money to your life insurance agent. Send it directly to the carrier. To the carrier. Oh, definitely.

Insurance broker Karen Marie Dondonville of Mission Viejo pleaded guilty to 90 counts including grand theft, theft, insurance fraud, financial elder abuse, and forgery for stealing more than financial elder abuse.

That's good. That's. That you don't get much lower than that. Like, that's like. No scum of scum.

Like, why, why would you. People that are like in the sunset of their life trying to just, you know, enjoy. Enjoy their family enjoying one another, and then now you're getting scammed out of your money. Like, I'm. I'm so glad they caught her, but it's like, I feel like the punishment is not enough here. I'm gonna be honest. Like, I was a little disappointed when I heard the punishment.

I'm not gonna lie then. $180,000 in premiums from 32 victims over an eight year period. As a former insurance broker, Don Danville collected premium payments from her clients, but failed to provide them with insurance coverage. Instead, she issued fraudulent documents to cover up her actions. Don Danville was ordered to pay more than $330,000 in restitution to the victims, including those who suffered uncovered losses due to her fraudulent actions. She was sentenced to three years of formal probation and faces up to 33 years.

In three years of formal probation, they.

Should make her pee in the cup every week. Just.

But that is not enough.

That is, yeah, I can stay home. I mean, we stay home for two years.

I mean, she probably cut some kind of a plea deal, but that. No, she should have gotten more in prison.

If she violates the terms of her probation, Don Danville's ill. Now seeing how.

Long she did this and that after she got her. Because remember this next part? They talk about her getting her license revoked. She may end. She may end up in prison.

Illegal activities Caused many of her clients insurance policies to be canceled for non payment, leaving them without coverage. Despite having her license revoked in 2019, Dondonville continued to engage in fraudulent insurance transactions even after prompting the department of.

Insurance after they took your license. You're like, this is persistency gone wrong?

Yes.

This is like, oh, you take, oh, you take my license, it don't bother me. We still gonna like, that's crazy.

Well, she's not even the right thing when she has her license.

Well, the cool thing, Betsy, is that every year, you know, we have the expiration date on your agent verified page. So if she would have been, she would have never been able to be back on agent verified. That's right after. Because the license would have expired. So.

Yep, thank goodness. There's a reason for that, right? Exhibit A. Right.

Exhibit A.

Why we have insurance to issue to cease and desist orders in 20.

Okay. A cease and desist from the insurance.

To stop you to stop doing business as an unlicensed agent.

As in.

This is too much. This is too much. I'm like, I feel like with every story, I'm like, how, how surely, surely there won't be enough left. Okay, no, there's still enough left for us. That's so sad.

2021, the department imposed a $20,000 penalty on her for these illegal activities. The case was prosecuted by the Orange county district attorney's office Major fraud unit.

The moral of the story is.

Oh my goodness. That was. That was some fraud right there. That is some fraud right there. Oh, my goodness.

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Well, guys, that's why we have agent verified. So make sure that your agent is on Agent verified. And if they're not, we're going to get the red flag. Red flag.

Yeah, Red flags. Next season. Next season.

Here we go. Red flag. Red flag. Oh, gosh. Well, let's get on to something a little more positive. Tell me what's going on in the Spencer agency this week.

Oh, man, we are growing. Agents are learning that's the cool part. You know what's weird, Betsy, is I put on my calendar to spend at least one or two calls to new agents as they're in licensing. And I don't know if you get this, but they get. My agents are like, you called me and I'm like, yeah, how are you? And it's like. And I forget, like, we got the podcast and we have the other companies and we're on this, that, and the third. And I'm like. And they start the Mr. Spencer me. And I'm like, please, let's not do that. Like, no, I'm. Let's do this. We. I need people looking for gladiators. So spoke to an agent that was fresh in the agency. She was just needing a little tap on the shoulder on, you know, what to do. Have so many new agents. I'm so excited about that's. Just may have tried it before. Came into insurance and it wasn't the right fit. And I really, really guess the best word is I idolize those folks because, you know, we've been fortunate to be with the company that we're still with Fresh out. But imagine those agents that's out there that tried here. I mean, I had one lady, she told me, one of my agents told me that she got all signed up, all onboarded, and she got on the first phone call with her upline to see how things should go, and they did not align. It was like, scrupulous. It was just. It was the last time they heard from them. So when she went through our training and heard how we present and how we take care of our clients and all of that, she's like, I told my husband I found my home. And that made me feel really. I was like, man, I give you guys the utmost respect that's out there and you find a solution and you know, the industry is right for you, but you realize that the house that you just got introduced to the industry and might not be the right fit. So you keep looking. And I never had to do that. Right. You know, I found home fresh out the gate, and we're still here rocking and rolling. So. But yeah, if you think that's. You give us a shout. Take flight. We provide your. Your leads, your systems, and we have a way for you to grow faster than ever. So.

Absolutely, absolutely. Man, I love that. I mean, I think it's just. What's so awesome is we see that happening in, you know, in the Take Flight in the Spencer Agency, and I couldn't be more excited for You. And the same thing is happening with the bar agency, with our Aloha program. Same, same type, same type of ideas. You know, we each implement it just a little differently because we all have different personalities. Right. But it really is exciting, Spencer, to see people come on. And I have one guy that just keeps telling me, this is so. I have. I have hope again in the industry. Like, I have hope.

Oh, and he's like.

And he said, I've. I've been here for 12 years in the industry and this. I've never seen anything like this. And I'm winning. And he's, you know, seems like every, you know, every day I'm getting a ping, Wrote an app ping, Wrote an app ping. And he's like, I've never. I've literally never been this successful and been in a place where I feel so encouraged because, like, you know, in our chat, we're always talking to each other. We're always, you know, asking questions. And it's not always just me or one of my leaders that are answering questions. Sometimes it's a newer agent that just went through that and is able to answer that question. So then they get excited because they're contributing. And so it's just like this whole. This whole community that we're building. And that's why I call it the Aloha program, because we're like the Aloha spirit. I know, I know. But that's what I love about it. And just to kind of see everyone, like, fully embrace that. Yeah, it's just. It's so awesome. Like, man, this is what it's. This is what it's all about. This is what I like, you know, dreamed of four or five years ago. And just, you know, you gotta work to get to this part, you know, get to the fun part. Right? Like, but doing that work, putting it in is. I mean, it's so. I feel like I'm living this dream life now that I never, ever would have imagined. And yet here it is. It's our reality. I mean, I'm just so grateful. Like, I feel like I'm just living in gratitude this week. So that's what's happening.

See, we definitely are, man. So, all right, who's next?

Frauder Living in gratitude to the last fraud story.

The last fraud story.

We certainly have ups and downs here. All right, our last fraud story. We'll leave you hanging a little bit. You got to come back next episode to see how it turns out.

This is brought to you you by.

Agent verified.com Seneca Birchmore a Cincinnati resident has been sentenced after pleading guilty to aggravated identity Theft and Fraudul obtaining two COVID 19 Paycheck Protection Program loans. Birchmore was ordered to pay nearly $147,000 in restitution. In 2019, he lost his insurance license for writing unauthorized policies to collect commissions.

Jesus. Oh, man.

There we go. That'll do it. That'll do it.

Wow.

Wow.

Come back next episode. Can't wait to see. What did they do to him. I say under the jail. Off with his head. Let's do it.

Maybe not that. All right, guys, thanks so much for tuning in. We are Betsy and Spencer with fraud facts and life insurance with agent verify.

Peace.

Thanks for listening to fraud facts and life insurance with agent verified. If this episode made you double check your policy or your agent, head over to agentverified.com to find someone you can trust. We'll be back next week with more fraud stories, facts and ways to protect what matters most. So stay smart, stay safe, and always verify your line life insurance agent.