SANTA ANA — A former Lake Forest insurance broker pleaded guilty Thursday and was immediately sentenced to three years of probation for stealing nearly $183,000 in insurance premiums and exposing victims to uninsured losses. .
Karen Marie Dondanville, 56, pleaded guilty to 90 charges, most of them felonies, including felonious theft, theft from an elderly person, insurance fraud, aiding and abetting false claims, and recording and reporting. This includes false entries in documents, forgery, etc. She also approved sentencing enhancements for aggravated property damage over $65,000 and white collar crime between $10,000 and $500,000.
Dondanville’s attorney, Fred Facenelli, said Dondanville accepted a plea deal with prosecutors.
“Now she can move forward to make these people whole,” Facenelli said of being out of custody. “Everyone benefits by her being on probation…Usually the goal is to compensate the victim.”
He said personal issues contributed to the sloppy supervision, which led to the criminal case.
The California Department of Insurance announced that Dondanville has been ordered to pay $335,349 in restitution to the victims. This includes payments to victims who suffered losses as a result of Dondanville’s theft.
Dondanville’s insurance broker license was revoked by the state in November 2019, California Department of Insurance investigator Braylyn Velasco said in court documents.
When Velasco’s lawsuit was filed in 2021, she said in court documents that between January 2012 and January 2020, she “used fraud, misrepresentation, and forgery to collect payments from 32 customers. He said he stole $183,074 in insurance premiums and refunds.
According to Velasco, she provided customers with false insurance documents and charged them excessive premiums, and in some cases provided insurance policies to mortgage companies when the customers did not have them. That’s what it means.
The defendant received and deposited insurance premium payments from the victim, but “failed to remit the premium to the victim’s insurance company, thereby depriving the victim of his insurance benefits and exposing him to potential losses.” ” said the investigator.
“Dondanville manipulated the victims’ insurance policies in order to steal their premium refunds,” Velasco said. “Dondanville changed the victim’s address on the insurance policy to his own address without the victim’s knowledge or permission.”
She also allegedly forged the victim’s signature on documents submitted to the insurance company requesting cancellation of the victim’s insurance policy and refund of premiums, and investigators believe that Don Danville had no insurance policy on the victim’s property. It was also revealed that the application form had been submitted with false information. Stealing insurance premium refunds.
Velasco also claimed that he “significantly exaggerated the victims’ residential assets in order to increase their insurance premiums.” “After the insurance company received the premium from the victim’s mortgage account, Mr. Dondanville requested that the insurance company reduce the amount of the home and refund the premium, and Mr. Dondanville then transferred the money to himself. I was planning to spend it.”
Three of the victims were over 65 years old, Velasco said.
Velasco said the defendants continued to operate the business even after their licenses were revoked.
“One of Dondanville’s victims sustained substantial losses that were not covered by insurance, even though the victim paid insurance premiums to Dondanville and Dondanville provided proof of insurance,” Velasco said. “Victims did not realize their insurance policies were fraudulent until they experienced the loss.”
The Orange County Register contributed to this article.
