William David Rodeffer III of Folkston, Georgia, was arrested for collecting $40,000 in insurance premium payments from two clients for nearly three years for insurance policies that were never purchased. Claims Journal reported today about the arrest and listed their source as the Florida Department of Financial Services.
The investigation was performed by Florida’s Division of Insurance Fraud (DIF).
The DIF is responsible for investigating criminal acts of suspected insurance fraud perpetrated by individual citizens, insurance agents, insurance companies and businesses. And lists itself as “a national leader in the fight against insurance fraud, continuously ranking in the top five among all states’ fraud bureaus and divisions.”
A former Georgia licensed agent, Rodeffer set up shop in North Florida and allegedly collected premiums from an 91 year-old Floridian and the American Legion Post 283 for insurance policies that were never purchased and without a license could not have purchased for the applicants. Rodeffer had applied for a Florida license to sell insurance but was denied because of his criminal history. That criminal history includes charges from a 2014 separate but similar offense.
Claims Journal reported:
One of the clients, a 91 year-old Floridian, thought he purchased a workers’ compensation policy from Rodeffer. DIF said it wasn’t until one of the workers under the policy was injured and filed a claim against the policy sold by Rodeffer that it was realized the policy never existed. DIF reported at least 10 premium payments were made only to find out that all those payments were kept by Rodeffer leaving the 91 year-old without workers’ compensation coverage and $30,000 in medical bills to cover.
The second client, American Legion Post 283, was led to believe they held general liability property insurance coverage after providing multiple premium payments to Rodeffer. DIF’s investigation went on to show that Rodeffer failed to obtain insurance coverage for them as well.
Florida’s Department of Insurance Fraud believes there may be other victims and is asking for the public to contact them if they have conducted insurance-related business with Rodeffer.
Rodeffer has been charged with one count of grand theft from a person 65 years of age or older, grand theft, scheme to defraud, and five counts of conducting insurance related business while being unlicensed. Her faces up to 60 years in prison.
