HIALEAH, Fla. – An insurance agent based out of Hialeah faces more than a dozen felony charges after state investigators said she stole clients’ identities, took out fraudulent life insurance policies without their knowledge and pocketed commissions on those policies.
Investigators with the Florida Department of Financial Services’ Bureau of Insurance Fraud arrested 35-year-old Edna Rodriguez Wednesday.
Recommended Videos
Her business was based out of a home on West 11th Avenue in Hialeah, according to state licensing documents, though an arrest report states she resides in Doral.
According to the report, Rodriguez worked for Americo Life, which tipped off state investigators after receiving “several complaints” and conducting “proactive searches” into life insurance policies she submitted.
Americo “sent letters to these clients asking if they knew of any life insurance policies,” the report states.
“These clients did respond by indicating that they were unaware of any life insurance policies,” the state investigator wrote. “In addition, they said that these unauthorized policies were purchased with moneys from their bank accounts.”
State investigators met with a number of clients, who said they never gave Rodriguez permission to take out the policies.
“They indicated that they either met with the defendant in person or via phone when they initially obtained health insurance through the Obamacare marketplace, but never a life insurance policy,” the report states. “They also affirmed to never having given the defendant permission to access their personal nor banking information to purchase these policies.”
Rodriguez is accused of receiving $3,569.44 in fraudulent commissions. She was charged with four counts each of of false entry of material fact and identity fraud, three counts of third-degree grand theft and one count each of organized scheme to defraud and uttering forged instruments.
Rodriguez, a Nicaraguan national, was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $10,000 bond.