A Bakersfield insurance agent has been arrested on charges he cheated clients out of more than $400,000. Albert Ricardo Prince, 53, was in the Lerdo Jail Friday afternoon, charged with eight felonies and held on $195,000 bail.
Prince, who owns Prince Insurance Agency, pleaded not guilty to embezzlement, perjury, grand theft and other felonies.
According to a statement by the California Department of Insurance, Prince took more than $400,000 in premiums from his clients between March 2006 and October, 2009.
He was supposed to use the money to buy policies for the clients, but kept the money for himself or bought worthless policies from sham companies, according to the CDI.
As a result, the clients were left uninsured.
That's what happened to the Bakersfield Homeless Center, according to a Channel 17 investigation in July.
The center paid $460,000 to build a new dormitory, and required the contractor to buy a bond, according to Homeless Center Director Louis Gill. The bond was insurance: If the contractor didn’t finish the project, the insurance would pay to have another builder do the work.
The first builder abandoned the project. When the Homeless Center tried to cash its insurance.
The policy had been purchased from Albert Prince. It was from a company on the island of Vanuatu, an island nation so sparsely populated it was used as a setting for the TV show Survivor. It was worthless, according to the Contact 17 investigation by Kiyoshi Tomono.
The California Department of Insurance came to the same conclusion, according to Friday’s statement.
"The CDI investigation also alleges that Prince knowingly obtained fraudulent performance bonds from a bogus off-shore surety company, exposing his clients and numerous governmental agencies to uninsured losses," the statement said.
"Prince accepted more than $400,000 from clients to pay premiums for homeowners' insurance, commercial liability insurance and performance (construction) bonds and misappropriated the premiums for his own personal use," the statement said.
"When agents commit these types of crimes it devalues the entire industry and makes it harder on legitimate agents to conduct business," Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said. "We will catch and prosecute those people who choose to prey on unsuspecting consumers in order to protect those consumers and the respectable agents providing a valuable service here in California."
A month after the Channel 17 investigation, the state suspended Prince's license and prohibited him from conducting any type of business related to insurance, including the collection of premiums. On Oct. 13, 2009, Prince voluntarily surrendered his insurance license.
