“It’s unfortunate that there are unscrupulous individuals who think they can get away with collecting money through illegal activity involving the insurance industry.  Fortunately, CDI detectives are very good at what they do, investigating suspects and bringing them to justice.” – CSLEA President Alan Barcelona

RIVERSIDE— On April 1, 2002, the California Department of Insurance (CDI) announced that CDI detectives arrested former insurance agent Ceaser Guadalupe Salazar, 36, of La Quinta, on multiple counts of identity theft, grand theft, and embezzlement after he allegedly submitted more than 60 fraudulent insurance applications with stolen identities to gain more than $20,000 in undeserved commissions.

After receiving notice from Salazar’s former employer that he had been terminated because of suspected fraud in April 2019, CDI began an investigation. The investigation found Salazar allegedly submitted 10 fraudulent policy applications for life insurance to that employer and received unearned commissions on seven of the fraudulent policies.

Through a search warrant for Salazar’s bank account and witness interviews, further investigation found that Salazar was working for another life insurance company at the same time and allegedly using a similar scheme to collect more undeserved commissions. While working for the second company, Salazar allegedly filed 56 fraudulent life insurance policy applications from March 2019 through July 2019 and received unearned commissions on 47 of those fraudulent applications. None of the 56 policy applications submitted by Salazar ever became active policies.

The investigation alleges that Salazar collected $20,033 in advanced commissions through the submission of fraudulent life insurance policy applications to the two life insurance companies where he formerly was employed.

Salazar’s license expired on June 30, 2019. His next scheduled court date is June 13, 2022. The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office is prosecuting this case.