A (now former) insurance agent has been sentenced to 75 months in prison because she stole more than $1 million dollars from her elderly clients. She told them that she was reinvesting their money. In reality, she was spending it on things for herself.
Everyone has had the experience, at least once, of getting a letter in the mail that says that your insurance company has denied your claim. When faced with a bill that you expected your insurer to cover, it is not unheard of to have less than positive thoughts about the insurance company. It is easy, in a moment of anger, to assume that your insurance agent got into the business to make money, and not to help customers. Usually, that isn’t really true.
Once in a while, though, there is a vivid example of an insurance agent that actually did get into the insurance business because that person wanted to make lots of money. Often, these stories hit the news after an insurance agent has been arrested for some form of insurance fraud.
Jasmine Jamrus-Kassim used to be an insurance agent who worked for Bankers Life and Casualty. She was arrested this month after an investigation was done by the state of Washington’s insurance commissioner’s Special Investigations Unit. The investigation started when a 92 year old woman named Dorothy King filed a complaint about the insurance agent.
The investigation found that Jasmine Jamrus-Kassim stole more than $1 million dollars from five clients, who were between the ages of 74 and 90. She did this between October of 2007 and November of 2009. It has been said that she convinced her clients to cash out large portions of their annuities with Bankers Life and Casualty. In other words, she stole their life’s savings.
Next, she deposited those checks into two separate bank accounts. The bank accounts belonged to her daughters, who are ages 19 and 18. Later, Jasmine Jamrus-Kassim would transfer those funds into her own, personal, bank account. At the time of her arrest, she was attempting to liquidate her assets, and was trying to sell her house in a “short sale”.
The money she stole from clients was spent on jewelry, clothing, and a trip to Mexico. In January of 2009, she spent more than $20,000 on the Online Psychic Network. Psychics from that network charge anywhere between 50 cents to $3.00 for one minute of time. They do tarot card readings, and allow people to speak with clairvoyants who claim to be able to connect the person with his or her deceased loved ones.
Image by Nick Ares on Flickr