A Palm Beach, Fla. insurance agent has been charged with multiple counts of fraud and grand theft for an alleged stranger-originated life insurance scheme involving $78 million in death benefits.
Some of the charges carry sentences of up to 30 years, if convicted.
Steven Brasner, 44, of Davie, Fla., was arrested at his office April 22, according to a statement by the Florida Division of Insurance Fraud and the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office.
Brasner faces 22 violations of state law, including 8 counts of insurance fraud and 7 of grand theft, according to the Florida Department of Financial Services.
He was arrested based on information supplied by AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company in 2008 about concerns on the accuracy of data he supplied about the net worth of insureds, according to information supplied by the law enforcement agencies. Brasner was arranging to sell the policies on the secondary market, they said.
A probable-cause affidavit alleged that Brasner sought insurance for 5 seniors and said that the policies were not intended to be sold. It also alleged he earned $1.6 million in commissions on $78 million worth of policies.
Brasner is a principal at Infinity Financial Group of Boynton Beach. He was unable to be reached by phone. Palm Beach County law enforcement authorities said he is out on bail, but records did not specify an attorney for him.
The insurance company sued Brasner and others in June 2008 for alleged fraud in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, according to court records.
AXA notified law enforcement authorities, as mandated by regulations that require insurance companies to notify regulatory agencies when they suspect fraud, said a spokesman for AXA, New York, a unit of AXA S.A., Paris.
In addition to the AXA policies, the affidavit alleges that Brasner obtained another $6.5 million policy for an elderly woman with Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Co., now known as Transamerica Life Insurance Co., San Francisco, a subsidiary of AEGON N.V., the Netherlands.
Brasner allegedly promised to pay the insureds 3% to 5% of the face value of the policies when they were sold after the 2-year contestability period had passed.
According to Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, all of the elderly AXA consumers applied for life insurance under Brasner's direction with the intention of selling the policies at a later date.
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