Alabama Insurance Agency Fined for Employees’ Sales of Bogus Policies

A Gulf Shores insurance agency must pay a $36,000 fine and adopt multiple accounting controls within 18 months after selling bogus homeowners policies to at least 118 customers.

A government hearing officer ruled that if Pamela Wynona Schoen of the Starfish Insurance Agency fails to implement the bookkeeping practices or pay the fine, she will lose her sales license and face an additional $236,000 in fines.

Hearing officer Frank Snowden wrote that while Schoen provided evidence that two employees, not her, sold the policies, there was “negligence in the operation of her office.”

Schoen testified during last month’s hearing in Mobile that she has spent more than $450,000 repaying victims of the fraud, which she said was perpetrated in her absence.