Former California Agent Facing Felony Charges In Insurance Fraud Scheme

Formerly licensed insurance agent Paul Kirton, 51, of Bozeman, Montana, has been charged with eleven felony counts including identity theft, grand theft and embezzlement after allegedly writing 162 fraudulent policies in an attempt to gain unearned commissions.

The Department began an investigation after an insurance company was notified by one of their insureds that they were not employed by the company listed on their policy.

The investigation revealed that Kirton wrote 162 policies for 38 policyholders under ‘company groups’ who were never employed with the companies, making the individuals ineligible to be placed on the company group accounts. This caused the insurance company to allegedly pay out more than $182,376 in unauthorized claim benefits on fraudulent policies.

Investigators also discovered Kirton submitted other policy applications for individuals who did not authorize the policy applications, and provided false personal information for individuals which resulted in Kirton being paid more than $35,000 in illegal advance commissions.

Kirton was arrested last week in Bozeman, Montana and is currently awaiting extradition. His lawyer appeared in court yesterday on his behalf. The case is being prosecuted by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

The Department of Insurance revoked Kirton’s license on April 6, 2017 for issues stemming from his failure to report a DUI arrest.