We’re all in the jailhouse now : Blog
June 13, 2014 by Steven A. Morelli
Justice delayed is justice denied. That is familiar phrase rich in meaning and one of those that only makes complete sense when it is staring you in the face.
That’s the situation for Alan S. Lewis right now, who is in a California jail awaiting a June 23 trial. He is facing 29 felonies and one misdemeanor for selling annuities with surrender charges. He made repeated sales to clients and the Riverside County district attorney is accusing him of twisting. Except, instead of being brought before the state Department of Insurance, he is being charged with embezzlement, grand theft and burglary. The burglary is because he visited clients in their home.
Many observers from the insurance sales community have questioned the sales themselves but are also baffled by the criminal charges.
In the meantime, Lewis’ life is on hold and certainly forever changed. He was already battling back from some difficult times in his life when he was arrested and thrown in jail in late February. He is still incarcerated, facing a constant threat of violence for lack of $600,000 bail.
Lewis was supposed to go to trial June 9, but the prosecutor wasn’t ready. So it’s been postponed to June 23. That prosecutor and the judge who allowed the continuance left the courtroom unshackled and went home to their families that day and every day that Lewis sits in jail.
If he is acquitted, he won’t get that time back and won’t be able to erase the episode from the record on the Internet. That’s also the situation that Glenn Neasham faces.
Neasham was also an annuity agent in California who was accused of theft in a sale. He sold a fixed index annuity to an 83-year-old who was said to have dementia. Neasham and two of his assistants said they did not notice cognitive impairment. The prosecutor did not prove that Neasham knew.
People were amazed that Neasham was convicted in 2011. They said he would win on appeal. But those people got to continue their business and enjoy life with their families. Neasham lost his license, home and had to move into a house provided by his in-laws. He and his family had to subsist on public assistance.
Neasham eventually won his appeal in 2013. In fact, judges eventually said the conviction was so ridiculous that they took the unusual step to “depublish” the original decision. But the state didn’t restore his life.
The difference between these cases and theft cases that advisors usually face is that Lewis and Neasham were engaged in legal sales. In typical theft, agents set up phony identities or steal directly from impaired clients and so on. Those are people who were flat-out stealing. Lewis and Neasham were selling annuities as thousands upon thousands do every day. Some might question some of their methods and that would usually be a question for regulators to answer.
Some say they would never engage in a questionable sale because they are always ethical and hold their clients’ interest above all. But ethics are subjective. What is one person’s swap for a better annuity deal is another’s case of twisting.
It must be a little scary for annuity agents in California these days to know that they could be wearing chrome bracelets on the way to jail any day now. As one commenter on our site said: “All agents better start working out and learning self-defense because it won’t be easy in prison.”
Read at http://blog.insurancenewsnet.com/2014/06/12/were-all-in-the-jailhouse-now/Copyright © InsuranceNewsNet, Inc.
