Former insurance marketer faces prison time in $15 million life insurance scam
February 17th, 2011
Edward Dombrowski owned a company that created and marketed insurance products. He didn’t sell insurance. There’s a difference.
 |
But an insurance finance company in New Jersey didn’t know Dombrowski’s true intentions and helped dozens of consumers became unwitting participants in a $ 15 million life insurance scam.
Dombrowski ran a company called KDG. He admitted falsifying documents to obtain $ 15 million from a finance company that lends money to cover the cost of insurance premiums. Dombrowski marketed the group life insurance policies to Linden, N.J., municipal employees and other union members in New Jersey.
The policies did not exist. But an unsuspecting finance company paid $ 15 million to an account Dombrowski controlled to fund the policies. Instead of paying the money to an insurance company, Dombrowski used the money to buy real estate, stock and two luxury cars, federal authorities say.
The scheme began unraveling when employees died, but death benefits to their loved ones were not paid. Dombrowski, 45, and co-defendant Stephen Locrotondo, 51, ran the scam in 2003 and 2004. Both have pleaded guilty. Each man faces up to 20 years in prison and a $ 250,000 fine when they’re sentenced in May 2011.
Dombrowski now lives in Georgia.
Sticky-fingered legislator
George Guldi, a former public official in New York, was convicted Feb. 17, 2011, of grand larceny and insurance fraud for forging a signature on an $ 853,000 Countrywide insurance check, then depositing that check into his personal account. The money was supposed to go toward repair of his historic Westhampton Beach home, which was destroyed in a 2008 fire.
 |
| George Guldi, a former public official in Suffolk County, N.Y., was convicted in an insurance fraud case. |
Facing financial difficulty, Guldi had to represent himself.
“This insurance check was my money, not the bank’s,” he said in opening remarks of his trial, which began in January. “They’re prosecuting me for taking my own money.”
Guldi faces up to 15 years in prison. But that’s the least of his worries.
Guldi, a former legislator in Suffolk County, N.Y., was arraigned in January on a 110-count indictment for his involvement in an $ 82 million mortgage fraud scheme. One of his alleged conspirators includes a dominatrix who recruited phony buyers from clients and ran a Manhattan fetish photography studio.
Hail to the insurance scheme?
On Valentine’s Day 2011, a Shreveport, La., mother-daughter duo got a date with local authorities after they were charged with one count each of filing a false insurance claim.
Mary J. Nelson, 52, and Josette Nelson, 29, were seeking compensation for purported hail damage to a 1996 Pontiac Bonneville and a 1999 GMC Sierra truck, both registered to Mary Nelson. Turns out, neither vehicle had been damaged by hail. The Nelsons eventually admitted striking the vehicles with rocks wrapped in paper towels before filing the bogus insurance claim.
Both women have been released from a Louisiana jail. Each could face jail time and a fine.
Icy reception for hockey fan
 |
| Richard Marsh attempts — then makes — a hockey shot in Indianapolis. However, an insurance company refuses to pay the $ 50,000 prize because it says Marsh violated a rule. |
We’ve all heard of insurance companies that deny customers’ claims. But what happened Feb. 12, 2011, in Indianapolis takes claims denial to another level.
During intermission of a minor-league hockey game involving the Indiana Ice, 73-year-old fan Richard Marsh was selected from the crowd to try his luck at scoring a goal from 175 feet away. The target was less than 6 inches in diameter.
The Allstate-sponsored event promised $ 50,000 to Marsh if he made the shot.
Marsh made the shot, which has gone viral on YouTube. But a third-party insurance company that put up the money – not Allstate – reviewed footage and decided Marsh’s foot had gone over the line where he was standing. The third-party insurer, which has not been named, refused to pay the $ 50,000.
Before the event, Marsh had said he would donate the money to the St. Vincent Heart Center of Indiana, which repaired his heart in 2007. After the ice debacle, the owners of the Indiana Ice, Paul and Cindy Skjodt, announced plans to donate an undisclosed sum to the heart center on Marsh’s behalf.
–Kevin Lyons
Tags: 