In December 2017, Brian McFarland, pleaded guilty to 1 count of Fraudulent Schemes and Artifices and 2 counts of Theft. this week, he was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison and 7 years of probation after selling fake insurance policies to commercial environmental businesses.
McFarland must also pay full restitution, which is more than $450,000, to the defrauded businesses.
The Arizona Department of Insurance DOI Fraud Unit, in a joint effort with the New Jersey Department of Insurance, arrested McFarland for fraud schemes, identity theft, and theft in 2016. McFarland forged his name onto an Arizona insurance producer’s license of another agent with the same last name. He used the stolen identity and producer’s license to sell insurance under the name Legends Environmental Insurance Services, LLC (Legends). In 2013, Legends merged with Insurance Office of America, Inc. During a background check, Insurance Office of America discovered McFarland’s forgery and immediately reported it to the DOI Fraud Unit.
The DOI Fraud Unit found McFarland set up fraudulent bank accounts under Legends’ name without the agency’s knowledge, and diverted more than $450,000 in premium payments into his own bank account. This caused 87 different commercial environmental companies located throughout the country to go without insurance.