Insurance broker gets 60 months for stealing $1million from client

Broker must pay restitution on top of serving a prison term

Insurance broker gets 60 months for stealing $1million from client

Insurance News

By Lyle Adriano

An insurance broker from Santa Clara has been sentenced to 60 months in prison for defrauding a widow out of over $1 million.

Gary Thornhill, 65, sold an insurance policy to a married couple in 1998. The husband later passed away in 2005, leaving the widow as the sole insured on the plan. It was around February 2008 when Thornhill became the trustee of the entity that became the legal owner of the policy. Instead of acting in his client’s best interest, however, he transmitted requests for funds to be drawn against the cash value of the widow’s policy without her knowledge or consent, prosecutors said.

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He was sentenced for wire fraud and mail fraud in connection with the scheme on June 07. Prosecutors said Thornhill obtained almost $1.5 million in unauthorized funds. He pleaded guilty to the charges and admitted that he had used his position to withdraw funds from the widow’s trust account.

US District Court Judge Lucy Koh, who handed down the sentence, said that Thornhill “really took advantage of this family,” stealing from the trust account despite having “a long-standing financial relationship.”

On top of serving a prison term, Thornhill was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $1,409,843.90 in restitution, NorCal Patch reported. Koh ordered the broker to begin serving his sentence no later than November 15.


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