$100,000 Fraud & Theft Lands Phila. Agent Jail Time

New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey announced that a Philadelphia insurance agent has been sentenced to four years in the New Jersey State Prison for his reported role in stealing more than $100,000 in insurance premium money from an elderly client.

According to Vaughn McKoy, Director, Division of Criminal Justice and Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden Brown, Odell R. Coleman, 34, of Philadelphia, was sentenced by Burlington County Superior Court Judge Marvin E. Schlosser to four years in state prison and ordered to pay $101,657 restitution to the Allianz Life Insurance Company. Coleman was sentenced on Fri., Aug. 15.

Brown noted that Coleman, a licensed New Jersey insurance agent, plead guilty on March 28 to a criminal Accusation which charged theft by failure to make required disposition of property received and theft by deception.

At the guilty plea hearing, Coleman reportedly admitted to Judge Schlosser that in his capacity as an insurance agent for Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America and LifeUSA Insurance Company, that he convinced a Moorestown, New Jersey, resident to purchase an annuity worth $100,000. Coleman admitted that on Aug. 16, 1999, he accepted a $100,000 check from the client.

Instead of submitting the monies to Allianz and LifeUSA for the annuity, Coleman reportedly deposited the funds into his bank account for his personal use.