Burbank Man Convicted of Grand Theft

June 10, 2009

Former insurance agent Edgar Agaronian of Burbank, Calif.,was recently convicted of grand theft. Agaronian will return to court for sentencing on June 30, the California Department of Insurance announced.

According to CDI investigators, in June 2006, former life insurance agent Agaronian received at least $2,729 in advance commissions from the submission of four fraudulent life insurance applications to a life insurance company. Each application contained false information, including forged signatures on bank draft authorization forms for monthly withdrawal of premiums from the applicants’ bank accounts, and voided checks. Agaronian had obtained valid information and voided checks that belonged to four individuals for insurance transactions that had occurred four to five years before he submitted the fraudulent applications, CDI said.

The CDI investigation determined that none of the four policyholders had knowledge of the false applications submitted by Agaronian or the issuance of the resulting policies. When the life insurance company discovered that the information on the voided checks did not match the information on the accompanying applications, they immediately ceased issuing policies for applications submitted by Agaronian. The company filed a complaint with CDI, and the department launched an investigation.

This case is being prosecuted by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Source: CDI