The Florida Division of Insurance Fraud announced Jan. 5 the arrest of insurance agent Timothy T. Rush for allegedly pocketing $224,600 from a client of his, who had been led to believe that the money was used to purchase an insurance annuity.
According to a release by the DIF, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office received a complaint in 2015 involving the 38-year-old Rush; one of Rush’s clients speculated that the money he had paid was not being used for the annuities he had agreed upon with Rush.
Following the complaint, the DIF and Florida’s Division of Agents and Agency Services conducted an independent investigation into the practices of the Bradenton-based insurance agent.
The investigation revealed that Rush was a licensed insurance agent in Florida who had been appointed to sell Bankers Life annuities, and had allegedly defrauded another client of his in the past.
In February of 2012, Rush helped an earlier client from Port Charlotte to claim a Medicare insurance supplement, and even managed to sell her Bankers Life annuity, which she paid in four checks for a total of $224,600.
Investigators came to the conclusion that Rush opened a fictitious corporation through Florida’s Division of Corporations in order to open a separate bank account where he illegally diverted the four checks into.
Although Rush processed the initial paperwork for the annuity, he kept the payments for himself.
He was arrested and detained in Manatee County Jail on December 30, 2015 with a bond of $100,000. Rush was charged with one count of an organized scheme to defraud, which is a felony of the first degree.
If convicted, Rush faces up to 30 years behind bars.
