Insurance Agent Defrauded Clients by Taking Premium Money and Keeping it for Personal Expenses
Barry Zalma
Dec 20, 2023
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Posted on December 20, 2023 by Barry Zalma
When a criminal defendant’s valid guilty plea includes a waiver of the right to appeal, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals generally enforces the waiver by dismissing any subsequent appeal that raises issues within the scope of the waiver.
However, even if an appeal waiver is valid and applicable, the Fourth Circuit will review a claim that a district court’s sentence or restitution order exceeded the court’s statutory authority. In United States Of America v. Glenda Taylor-Sanders, Nos. 21-4136, 20-4604, United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit (December 12, 2023) the Defendant sought a change of the sentence and restitution order.
FACTS
From February 2017 through May 2019, Taylor-Sanders took advantage of her role as a licensed insurance agent to defraud several trucking companies and the insurance finance company BankDirect Capital Finance. She defrauded the trucking companies by misappropriating funds that the companies provided her to pay for their insurance policy premiums and BankDirect Capital Finance by obtaining loans under the guise of nonexistent insurance policies. Instead of using the funds she obtained to pay insurance policy premiums or to pay back BankDirect Capital Finance for the legitimate loans it made to the trucking companies, Taylor-Sanders spent the funds on personal expenditures including cars, football tickets, and mortgage payments.
Predictably, some of the trucking companies’ insurance policies lapsed because Taylor-Sanders did not pay the insurance premiums.
Her scheme unraveled when one trucking company, DW Express, discovered its insurance policy was canceled for nonpayment after it tried to file a claim for an April 2019 trucking accident. Taylor-Sanders signed a plea agreement, under which she agreed to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud (Count Four). She also agreed to pay “full restitution, regardless of the resulting loss amount, to all victims directly or indirectly harmed by [her] ‘relevant conduct,’ . . . including conduct pertaining to any dismissed counts or uncharged conduct, regardless of whether such conduct constitutes an ‘offense’ …” And she “waive[d] all rights to contest the conviction and sentence in any appeal” on any grounds other than ineffective assistance of counsel or prosecutorial misconduct.
In exchange, the Government agreed to dismiss all the remaining counts against her. After this colloquy, the magistrate judge found that Taylor-Sanders’s plea was knowing and voluntary and that Taylor-Sanders understood the charges and potential penalties and consequences of her plea.
Four months later Taylor-Sanders moved to withdraw her guilty plea, asserting “she was told she had no choice but to plead guilty” and that “her plea was not knowing and voluntary because ‘she did not fully understand the interplay between what her guideline range could be versus the final sentence.'”
On March 10, 2021, the district court ordered Taylor-Sanders to pay restitution in the amounts the Government requested.
ANALYSIS
The magistrate judge conducted a proper Rule 11 colloquy. The magistrate judge confirmed that Taylor-Sanders had reviewed the charge with counsel, understood the contents and possible consequences of her plea agreement, and was voluntarily pleading guilty. When Taylor-Sanders twice expressed concerns about the plea agreement or factual basis document, the magistrate judge provided a recess for her to convene with counsel and make any necessary changes to the plea agreement before proceeding. Taylor-Sanders’s appeal waiver was valid.
The restitution order included $139,847.09 for a year of DW Express’s lost profits. Since Taylor-Sanders did not dispute that the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act permits restitution. The Fourth Circuit concluded that each of Taylor-Sanders’s claims on appeal are barred by the appeal waiver in her guilty plea. Therefore, her appeal was dismissed.
ZALMA OPINION
Fraud perpetrators have no honor. Even after obtaining a plea agreement that saved her years in prison, Taylor-Sanders took up the time of the District Court and the Fourth Circuit to hear a spurious motion to withdraw her guilty plea after knowingly entering into the plea agreement and waiving her right to appeal. She will pay restitution and spend an appropriate time in jail.
(c) 2023 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.
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Happy Law Day
ZIFL – Volume 30, Issue 9 – May 1, 2026
Read the full article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/zalmas-insurance-fraud-letter-may-1-2026-barry-zalma-esq-cfe-2tywc, see the video at at and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 5300 posts.
THE SOURCE FOR THE INSURANCE FRAUD PROFESSIONAL
ZIFL – Volume 30, Issue 9 – May 1, 2026
Zalma’s Insurance Fraud Letter (ZIFL) continues its 30th year of publication dedicated to those involved in reducing the effect of insurance fraud. ZIFL is published 24 times a year and is written by Barry Zalma.
DOJ Creates National Fraud Enforcement Division
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Read the full article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/efficient-proximate-cause-doctrine-saves-claim-barry-zalma-esq-cfe-yndlc, see the video at and at and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 5300 posts.
In American Abalone Farms, LLC v. Star Insurance Company et al., H052643, California Court of Appeals, Sixth District (April 27, 2026) the Court of Appeals dealt with an insurance coverage issue that required application of the efficient proximate cause doctrine.
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American Abalone Farms, LLC ("American Abalone" ) operates an aquaculture farm in Santa Cruz County, California, raising abalone in tanks. In August 2020, the CZU Lightning Complex Fires led to a prolonged power outage and road closures near the farm. As a result, the farm’s water pumps failed, causing the death of most of the ...
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In United Services Automobile Association and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company v. Anthony Wenzell, 2026 CO 25 (Colo. Apr. 27, 2026) Anthony Wenzell was rear-ended in a car accident. He had a significant prior 2014 accident that required back surgery.
Wenzell claimed underinsured-motorist (UIM) benefits under three policies: (1) the tortfeasor’s liability policy, (2) his own primary UIM policy with State Farm, and (3) an excess UIM policy issued by USAA (under his brother’s policy, which contained an “other insurance” clause making USAA’s coverage excess over any collectible insurance).
After receiving the claims, both USAA and State Farm repeatedly requested that Wenzell execute comprehensive medical-release authorizations so they could obtain his full medical records and ...
It is Fraud to Make the Same Claim Twice
Read the full article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fraud-make-same-claim-twice-barry-zalma-esq-cfe-c4g8c and at https://zalma.com/blog.
Chutzpah: After Being Paid for a New Roof Insured Makes Second Claim For Same Damages
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No One is Entitled to be Paid for the Same Loss Twice
In Mohammed Ali Khalili v. State Farm Lloyds, No. 14-25-00611-CV, Court of Appeals of Texas (April 30, 2026) Khalili maintained a State Farm Lloyds homeowners insurance policy for decades. In 2008 he filed a roof-damage claim; State Farm paid him to replace the entire roof (shingles and gutters). Khalili never replaced the roof and repeated his claim.
BACKGROUND
In 2021 he filed a second roof claim. State Farm’s inspectors found the roof “very old” with extensive non-storm-related damage. The claim was denied because (1) the damage did not exceed the deductible and (2) State Farm had already paid for a full roof replacement.
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State Farm filed motion for summary...
It is Fraud to Make the Same Claim Twice
Read the full article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fraud-make-same-claim-twice-barry-zalma-esq-cfe-c4g8c and at https://zalma.com/blog.
Chutzpah: After Being Paid for a New Roof Insured Makes Second Claim For Same Damages
Post number 5347
No One is Entitled to be Paid for the Same Loss Twice
In Mohammed Ali Khalili v. State Farm Lloyds, No. 14-25-00611-CV, Court of Appeals of Texas (April 30, 2026) Khalili maintained a State Farm Lloyds homeowners insurance policy for decades. In 2008 he filed a roof-damage claim; State Farm paid him to replace the entire roof (shingles and gutters). Khalili never replaced the roof and repeated his claim.
BACKGROUND
In 2021 he filed a second roof claim. State Farm’s inspectors found the roof “very old” with extensive non-storm-related damage. The claim was denied because (1) the damage did not exceed the deductible and (2) State Farm had already paid for a full roof replacement.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
State Farm filed motion for summary...
What Must be Done after Notice of a Claim is Received by the Insurer
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A first party property policy does not insure property: it insures a person, partnership, corporation or other entity against the risk of loss of the property. Before an insured can make a claim for indemnity under a policy of first party property insurance the insured must prove that there was damage to property the risk of loss of which was insured by the policy. The obligation imposed on the insured ...
