The state insurance commissioner’s office investigators appear to have broken a fraud case involving more than $1 million and five elderly men and women ranging in age from 74 to 90.
According to the commissioner’s office spokesman Rich Roesler, investigators from the insurance commissioner’s office and State Patrol troopers arrested Jasmine Jamrus-Kassim, who was living in Kent, Tuesday.
Roesler said she has been booked into King County jail on 21 counts of first-degree theft. Jamrus-Kassim was booked and released Tuesday after posting bond on $100,000 bail, according to county jail records.
Roesler said the alleged crime came to the insurance office’s attention through a complaint.
“We get more than 100,000 complaints each year,” Roesler said. “In this case the son of an 80-year-old man came to us. He had been going through his father’s finances and saw a check for $30,000, another for $30,000 and one for $50,000. His father asked him for help.”
Roesler said the man and other victims thought they were shifting money to other investments. The checks were made out to S.A. Saad.
According to a release from the commissioner’s office, many of the people thought S.A. Saad was an insurance company.
After the first complaint, a second complaint was filed with the department from a 90-year-old Renton woman, which alerted the investigators. Jamrus-Kassim returned about $25,000 to the Renton woman after she complained to the insurance commissioner.
Jamrus-Kassim had been working for Bankers Life and Casualty. She resigned from Bankers Life Jan 13.
“We are very interested in making these people whole,” Roesler said. “There is still a lot of investigation.”
Roesler said the investigators are looking into “what if any liability there is with Bankers Life.”
“This is an appalling abuse of trust,” Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler said in a release. “Vulnerable people trusted this agent with much of their life’s savings. And she just pocketed the money.”
According to the release, Jamrus-Kassim has two daughters with the initials and surname S.A. Saad. The money was deposited into the daughters’ accounts, then moved in Jamrus-Kassim’s personal credit union account.
Jamrus-Kassim is believed by investigators to have spent the money on clothes, jewelery and a trip to Mexico. Her financial records also show payments to online psychic advisors. The release noted there was a $20,000 charge from a psychic website in a one-month period of time.
The list of victims provided by the commissioner’s office include an 80-year-old Bellevue man for $130,000; a Seattle man, 75, for $60,021; a Renton woman, 74, for $484,564; and an 83-year-old Seattle man for $352,000.
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