Insurance Agent Defrauded Clients by Taking Premium Money and Keeping it for Personal Expenses
Barry Zalma
Dec 20, 2023
Read the full article at https://lnkd.in/gSPcFmZq and see the full video at https://lnkd.in/gAsGv9Nq and at https://lnkd.in/gFSfVtdv and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 4690 posts.
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.
Please tell your friends and colleagues about this blog and the videos and let them subscribe to the blog and the videos.
Subscribe to my substack at https://barryzalma.substack.com/publish/post/107007808
Go to Newsbreak.com https://www.newsbreak.com/@c/1653419?s=01
Follow me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/comm/mynetwork/discovery-see-all...
Daily articles are published at https://zalma.substack.com.
Go to the podcast Zalma On Insurance at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/barry-zalma/support; Go to Barry Zalma videos at Rumble.com at https://rumble.com/c/c-262921; Go to Barry Zalma on YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCysiZklEtxZsSF9DfC0Expg; Go to the Insurance Claims Library – http://zalma.com/blog/insurance-claims-library.
Please tell your friends and colleagues about this blog and the videos and let them subscribe to the blog and the videos.
Go to Barry Zalma videos at Rumble.com at https://lnkd.in/gV9QJYH; Go to Barry Zalma on YouTube- https://lnkd.in/g2hGv88; Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://lnkd.in/gwEYkxD.
Motion for Summary Judgment Requires Evidence Establishing Defenses
Post 5223
Read the full article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/motion-summary-judgment-fail-because-insurer-failed-zalma-esq-cfe-jhfsc, see the video at and at and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 5200 posts.
In Michael Tillema, Kim Til- Lema v. Meridian Security Insurance Company, No. SA-24-CV-00661-JKP, United States District Court, W.D. Texas, San Antonio Division (October 7, 2025) Plaintiffs Michael Tillema and Kim Til-Lema claimed coverage from Meridian Security Insurance Company for benefits for alleged wind and hail damage from a storm on April 26, 2022.
Meridian Security Insurance Company denied the claim, citing inspection reports and weather data indicating no hail event occurred on the alleged date. Plaintiffs hired an independent contractor, who also found no hail within one mile of the property on the ...
Hertz Succesfully Refuses to Pay Alleged Fraudulent Health Care Providers
Post 5222
Read the full article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/man-bites-dog-story-hertz-sues-alleged-fraudsters-zalma-esq-cfe-efbgc, see the video at and at and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 5200 posts.
Proactive Victim of Fraud Defeats Health Care Providers
In Hertz Vehicles, LLC v. Alignment Chiropractic, P.C., et al, Index No. 157368/2024, 2025 NY Slip Op 33627(U), Motion Seq. No. 001, NYSCEF Doc. No. 46, Supreme Court, New York County (September 30, 2025) Plaintiff alleged it is not obligated to pay no-fault benefits for the medical treatment of defendants for injuries while occupants of a 2023 Hyundai, owned and self-insured by Hertz.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
Plaintiff moved for a default judgment against defendants Alignment Chiropractic, P.C., and many other alleged health care providers.
Plaintiff also ...
Hertz Succesfully Refuses to Pay Alleged Fraudulent Health Care Providers
Post 5222
Read the full article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/man-bites-dog-story-hertz-sues-alleged-fraudsters-zalma-esq-cfe-efbgc, see the video at and at and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 5200 posts.
Proactive Victim of Fraud Defeats Health Care Providers
In Hertz Vehicles, LLC v. Alignment Chiropractic, P.C., et al, Index No. 157368/2024, 2025 NY Slip Op 33627(U), Motion Seq. No. 001, NYSCEF Doc. No. 46, Supreme Court, New York County (September 30, 2025) Plaintiff alleged it is not obligated to pay no-fault benefits for the medical treatment of defendants for injuries while occupants of a 2023 Hyundai, owned and self-insured by Hertz.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
Plaintiff moved for a default judgment against defendants Alignment Chiropractic, P.C., and many other alleged health care providers.
Plaintiff also moved...
The Professional Claims Handler
Post 5219
Posted on October 31, 2025 by Barry Zalma
An Insurance claims professionals should be a person who:
Can read and understand the insurance policies issued by the insurer.
Understands the promises made by the policy.
Understand their obligation, as an insurer’s claims staff, to fulfill the promises made.
Are competent investigators.
Have empathy and recognize the difference between empathy and sympathy.
Understand medicine relating to traumatic injuries and are sufficiently versed in tort law to deal with lawyers as equals.
Understand how to repair damage to real and personal property and the value of the repairs or the property.
Understand how to negotiate a fair and reasonable settlement with the insured that is fair and reasonable to both the insured and the insurer.
How to Create Claims Professionals
To avoid fraudulent claims, claims of breach of contract, bad faith, punitive damages, unresolved losses, and to make a profit, insurers ...
The History Behind the Creation of a Claims Handling Expert
The Insurance Industry Needs to Implement Excellence in Claims Handling or Fail
Post 5210
This is a change from my normal blog postings. It is my attempt. in more than one post, to explain the need for professional claims representatives who comply with the basic custom and practice of the insurance industry. This statement of my philosophy on claims handling starts with my history as a claims adjuster, insurance defense and coverage lawyer and insurance claims handling expert.
My Training to be an Insurance Claims Adjuster
When I was discharged from the US Army in 1967 I was hired as an insurance adjuster trainee by a professional and well respected insurance company. The insurer took a chance on me because I had been an Army Intelligence Investigator for my three years in the military and could use that training and experience to be a basis to become a professional insurance adjuster.
I was initially sat at a desk reading a text-book on insurance ...
The History Behind the Creation of a Claims Handling Expert
The Insurance Industry Needs to Implement Excellence in Claims Handling or Fail
Post 5210
This is a change from my normal blog postings. It is my attempt. in more than one post, to explain the need for professional claims representatives who comply with the basic custom and practice of the insurance industry. This statement of my philosophy on claims handling starts with my history as a claims adjuster, insurance defense and coverage lawyer and insurance claims handling expert.
My Training to be an Insurance Claims Adjuster
When I was discharged from the US Army in 1967 I was hired as an insurance adjuster trainee by a professional and well respected insurance company. The insurer took a chance on me because I had been an Army Intelligence Investigator for my three years in the military and could use that training and experience to be a basis to become a professional insurance adjuster.
I was initially sat at a desk reading a text-book on insurance ...
