Ex-Ventura insurance agent gets 10 years in prison for annuity fraud
January 15, 2016 by Staff Reports
A former Ventura insurance agent was sentenced this week to 10 years in prison after pleading no contest to felony charges involving the misuse of two elderly women’s annuities, authorities said Friday.
Joseph Anthony Mele, 31, was arrested in June and pleaded no contest in November to financial elder abuse, grand theft and embezzlement, the state Department of Insurance said in a news release. He was sentenced Thursday to 10 years by a Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge.
The department and Santa Barbara police began investigating Mele in October 2014. Investigators said Mele, doing business as Mele & Associates Senior Insurance Services in Ventura, served as a financial planner for a 93-year-old woman, convincing her to reinvest her retirement portfolio with him.
Mele sold her about $1.2 million in long-term annuities in June 2007, authorities said. He then “churned,” or rewrote, the annuities over the next seven years to obtain more commissions, officials said. They said he earned $295,000 in commissions and caused the woman to lose more than $500,000 in surrender penalties. Mele also wrote $800,000 in unauthorized checks to himself from the woman’s account, officials said.
Investigators said another victim, a 74-year-old woman, lost $80,000 in surrender penalties, as well as premium and interest earnings, after Mele convinced her to surrender her annuities early.
The Department of Insurance says it recovered over $650,000 in fees, penalties and interest for the two victims, allowing one of them to keep her home.
