Mass. Agent Finds Forgery Doesn’t Pay

A Quincy man who was working as an insurance agent has been arraigned on charges that he forged documents to steal $22,500 from a client for his own personal use, Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly announced.

Anthony Cedrone, 40, was arraigned in Quincy District Court on one count each of larceny from a person over 65, forgery and uttering. He is next scheduled to appear in court Aug. 9.

Cedrone was an insurance agent with Banker’s Life and Casualty insurance company. Cedrone reportedly sold the victim two annuity insurance products worth $170,000 through Banker’s Life. Cedrone learned that he could sell products through an agent at Allianz Life and received higher commissions than Banker’s Life. The victim in this case, a 83-year-old woman from Weymouth, agreed to transfer her funds from Banker’s Life to Allianz.

The investigation found that Cedrone, allegedly made two separate withdrawals from the woman’s account, one in April 2003 and the other in November 2003, by forging requests for disbursements. Cedrone allegedly asked that the checks be sent to the Allianz agent and allegedly forged the victim’s name on the checks and deposited them into his own personal account.

The victim never made withdrawal requests nor did she ever receive the checks, which totaled $22,500.

In January 2004, Cedrone allegedly requested that the victim’s address be changed so that checks would be delivered to his own address. This request alerted officials at Allianz who contacted the victim and the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts.