EASTERN NEWS ZONE......

* Failing to pay rental charges for a storage unit that he used to hide his car led to the arrest of a California man who fraudulently collected $19,000 on an insurance claim, the New York State Insurance Department reported.


Adam Rotger, 33, of San Francisco, was arrested as the result of an investigation begun in January after the owner of an Orange County, New York storage facility found a 2002 Acura Integra inside a unit Rotger rented. The storage unit was opened after Rotger failed to continue making payments for the facility he rented for more than four years. The storage facility owner contacted Town of Woodbury police who traced the vehicle to Rotger. Police found that Rotger had reported the car stolen in July 2004 and was paid $19,000 for the loss by the Progressive Insurance Company. Investigator David Towne said investigators believe Rotger tried to burn the car before putting it into storage because they found charring near the gas cap. Rotger lived and worked in Orange County before moving to California.



Rotger was charged with arson, grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, insurance fraud, falsifying business records and offering a false instrument for filing. If convicted, Rotger could be sentenced to up to seven years in prison.

• Raymond Douville, 54, who is also known as Raye Ellen Douville, was sentenced to two years in federal prison for committing wire fraud in connection with defrauding clients of her former insurance agency in New Hampshire. Douville, who was previously a man before a sex change, was also ordered to pay a total of $164,491.08 in restitution to the victims she defrauded.

From about October, 2001, through about September, 2003, Douville operated an agency that catered to the insurance needs of small, independently owned trucking companies. Many of Douville’s clients borrowed funds from a finance company to meet the costs of most of their annual premiums. The finance company wired loan proceeds to Douville’s business bank accounts to be placed in trust for Douville’s clients. Douville was required to use those funds to pay the annual premiums due on her client’s insurance policies. Instead of paying the annual premiums, however, Douville reportedly used her client’s funds for her personal benefit, which left her clients uninsured but still obligated to repay their loans to the finance company. Douville defrauded 12 businesses and embezzled more than $100,000. In August, 2008, a federal grand jury indicted Douville for wire fraud. Douville pled guilty to that charge in January of this year.