A former insurance coverage agent has been arrested for allegedly participating in a scheme that noticed him steal a number of victims’ identities to be able to open a “fraudulent insurance coverage company”, the California Division of Insurance coverage stated on Thursday (August 18).
Francis Okyere, 70, was beforehand licensed as an insurance coverage agent in Westlake Village. He’s additionally accused of getting used victims’ identities on small enterprise mortgage functions to fund the allegedly fraudulent company, known as Cyber Entry Insurance coverage Company.
Okyere has been charged with 17 felony counts, together with theft and grand theft by false pretences, the division stated.
The accused has beforehand been convicted of grand theft following one other division investigation that discovered Okyere had stolen $65,186 in insurance coverage premiums from enterprise homeowners. He was instructed to give up his insurance coverage licence in 2019 and sentencing within the case is pending.
Holly Freeman, 40, named as Okyere’s “alleged confederate”, was additionally arrested and charged with 4 counts of felony id theft, in keeping with the division.
CDI investigated after getting a grievance from one in all Okyere’s ex-relatives that alleged he had stolen individuals’s identities to open a brand new insurance coverage company.
The division stated it was in a position to affirm that Okyere stole the identities of 4 victims and that he had utilized for “a sequence” of Small Enterprise Administration and Paycheck Safety Program loans. Paperwork associated to the loans confirmed two of the identical victims’ stolen identities had been used to safe funds of $36,963.
Okyere’s bail was set at $815,000 and Freeman’s at $100,000.