California Broker Convicted in Premiums Scam

California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced that a former insurance broker, Rosa D. Rosa (aka Rosa D. Romero De Rosa), 51, of Huntington Park, was convicted of stealing nearly $4,000 in premiums paid to her for homeowners insurance. She was sentenced to serve one year in Los Angeles County jail, 3 years formal probation and pay restitution to her victims as prescribed by her probation officer.

According to CDI investigators between November 2005 and November 2007, Rosa, owner of R&R Insurance Services, located in Huntington Park, accepted not less than $5,984.40 from five victims seeking to purchase homeowner insurance policies. Rosa submitted insurance applications and partial payments to the California Fair Plan (Fair Plan) for four of the victims. The policies that were issued by the Fair Plan reflected a premium amount less than what Rosa had charged the victims. Rosa issued a bogus certificate of insurance to the fifth victim and retained their premium for her personal use.

During the investigation, Rosa admitted to collecting the inflated premium payments from her clients and cashing their checks at a check-cashing facility instead of depositing them into a trust account. After cashing the checks, she paid the policies in installment payments instead of remitting the payments in full. In two cases, Rosa failed to send the installment payments resulting in cancellation of the victims' policies.

CDI investigators determined that Rosa kept $3,883.32 that either should have been sent to the Fair Plan or returned to her clients. Furthermore, Rosa exposed her victims to the danger of financial loss due to failure to place coverage in a timely manner and failure to place coverage on at least one victim. Rosa admitted to using her client's premium for her personal use.

The fraud was discovered after a consumer complained that she noticed the reverse side of her premium check, payable to the Fair Plan, was endorsed by Romero De Rosa. CDI investigators discovered the five victims while reviewing Rosa's client files.

Rosa was convicted on two felony counts of Grand Theft by Embezzlement, a violation of 487(a) P.C. The investigation was conducted by the California Department of Insurance (CDI) Investigation Division and was prosecuted by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.