Norcross insurance broker sentenced to federal prison on fraud charges
By Danielle Ryan
danielle.ryan@gwinnettdailypost.com
The crook: Former insurance broker John Paul Kill was sentenced to four years in federal prison in connection to charges of insurance fraud. (Special Photo)
The former operator of Appeal Insurance Agency, LLC, John Paul Kill, has been sentenced to four years in federal prison in connection to charges of insurance fraud.
Kill allegedly illegally collected more than $3.7 million from nearly 800 trucking companies nationwide for selling and brokering fake cargo insurance policies, according to the Department of Justice.
“The defendant held himself out as an honest broker to hundreds of trucking companies, but he simply pocketed their premium payments instead of securing legitimate insurance coverage,” said U.S. Attorney John Horn in a statement. “His scam tricked clients into believing they had proper insurance coverage and endangered small businesses operating in more than 20 states.”
According to Horn, John Kill operated an insurance brokerage firm in Norcross that offered cargo insurance policies to trucking companies, starting in 2013. He allegedly issued policy binders to clients falsely representing that Lloyd’s of London would provide insurance coverage.
The Department of Justice believes that Kill never brokered any agreement with Lloyd’s to provide coverage and instead took the premium payments for himself. Most of the victims received no insurance policies at all, and Kill instead attempted to pay claims for losses out of the premium payments he collected from new victims.
In total, nearly 800 trucking companies across 22 states paid approximately $3.75 million in premiums for insurance policies that didn’t exist.
Kill, 63, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Eleanor L. Ross to four years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay approximately $1.23 million in restitution to victims. Kill was convicted on this charge on May 6, 2015 after he pleaded guilty.
“I’m thankful for the diligence of the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” said Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens, whose office referred the case. “This investigation proves that when agencies like the Department of Insurance and the U.S. Attorney’s Office work together, bad actors will be stopped.”