“CDI investigators and detectives work to protect consumers from financial harm inflicted by unscrupulous individuals who use the promise of insurance coverage as a front for their criminal actions.” – CSLEA President Alan Barcelona

SAN BERNARDINO— On November 7, 2022, formerly licensed insurance agent Vincent Allen LaGrange, 66, of Seal Beach, was sentenced in San Bernardino County Superior Court on one misdemeanor count of grand theft from an elder after an investigation by the California Department of Insurance (CDI) found he was acting as a licensed insurance agent to collect insurance premium payments from consumers, but pocketing the premium monies and leaving the consumers uninsured. LaGrange was sentenced to one year probation and has paid back full restitution to his victims.

CDI revoked LaGrange’s license and his entity license, operating as LaGrange and Associates Inc, and Empire-Valley Insurance Services, in May 2016 after proving that he had overcharged an elderly consumer by collecting earthquake coverage twice and misleading her about the billing. LaGrange even financed her premium with a separate finance company without her knowledge and attempted to re-apply for a new license six months later, but was denied.

In 2019, following a consumer complaint, CDI investigators learned that LaGrange was selling commercial liability policies under someone else’s insurance license number and collecting insurance premiums from consumers. LaGrange collected premium payments from two consumers in Lake Arrowhead, one of them being an elderly consumer, but failed to place the coverage and instead kept the money for himself. In order to cover up the theft, LaGrange issued the consumers certificates of insurance, which left them exposed to losses and in great financial risk.

The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office prosecuted this case.