“Crooked insurance agents who steal from their clients give honest professionals working in the insurance industry a bad name. Fortunately, CDI employs excellent investigators and detectives who work very hard to identify and investigate the bad, make arrests when necessary, and assist in prosecutions.” – CSLEA President Alan Barcelona
VENTURA— On September 9, 2021, former insurance agent Steven Gordon, 67, of Camarillo, was arraigned on 21 felony counts of grand theft, forgery, identity theft, and credit card fraud after allegedly stealing more than $1 million from three former clients.
The California Department of Insurance (CDI) launched an investigation after a life insurance company reported suspicious withdrawals from one of their customer’s accounts. It was discovered that Gordon, as owner of Geetis Group, Inc., made six electronic transfer funds, totaling $103,520, from the victim’s annuity account to an account that he controlled. He also allegedly stole $70,000 from that same victim’s savings account, charged nearly $100,000 to the victim’s credit card, and forged checks to steal approximately $310,000 from the victim’s bank account.
During the investigation, the CDI discovered two additional victims, a husband and wife. Gordon allegedly made dozens of electronic transfers, totaling $679,934 from multiple annuity accounts owned by the victims to a bank account that he controlled. He also is accused of forging bank checks to steal an additional $102,852 from their bank account.
According to the investigation, Gordon concealed these crimes by allegedly stealing the identities of his victims and changing the mailing address of the accounts to his home address. He is also accused of changing the email addresses associated with his victims’ accounts to an email address that he created. This prevented the victims from receiving account statements showing evidence of the withdrawals that were being made. Gordon would then mail the victims falsified account statements he created that omitted the withdrawals.
CDI believes there may be more victims in this case who are unknown at this time. Anyone with information about these crimes or similar crimes involving Gordon, should contact Department of Insurance at (661) 253-7500. Consumers may also report alleged incidents of fraud to the Department online at http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0300-fraud/reportingfraud.cfm.
The Department revoked the license of Gordon and Geetis Group, Inc. on April 6, 2021.
Gordon was arrested and booked into custody on August 26, 2021 by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office. Gordon is scheduled to return to court on October 26, 2021. This case is being prosecuted by the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, Fraud and Technology Crimes Unit.
