Insurance Agent Sentenced to 20 Years for $3 Million Annuity Scam
May 26, 2016 by Frank Klimko
HOUSTON – An insurance agent was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to running an annuity scam in which she admitted to stealing more than $3 million from about a dozen of her older clients, prosecutors said.
Celia Castillo was convicted after the Texas Department of Insurance discovered she operated an annuity scam, Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson said in a statement.
The department started looking at Castillo’s transactions after getting complaints about the legitimacy of the investment products Castillo was selling, TDI said in a statement. Castillo sold annuities, a type of insurance product where the buyer receives regular annual payments for life. However, Castillo never purchased any annuities for her clients; instead she directed all the payments into her own bank account, TDI said.
TDI investigator Geneva Titus said the crime was especially underhanded because Castillo preyed on older clients who had no nearby relatives. Her victims were all older than the age of 70, and two were more than 90 years old.
“She would really become part of their lives, carefully building relationships with each of these folks,” Titus said in the statement. “She would visit with them, give them rides, have dinner with them ¿ all with the goal of gaining their trust and eventually stealing their life savings.”
(By Frank Klimko, Washington correspondent, BestWeek: Frank.Klimko@ambest.com)
