A former Kent insurance agent is scheduled to be sentenced Friday, March 9 in Seattle for stealing more than $1 million in retirement funds from five people.
Jasmine Jamrus-Kassim, 49, has had three previous sentencing hearings postponed because she has wanted to change her guilty plea and asked for a new attorney.
Jamrus-Kassim is scheduled to be sentenced before King County Superior Court Judge Sharon Armstrong at 3:30 p.m. in Courtroom E-847 at the King County Courthouse in downtown Seattle. Jamrus-Kassim pleaded guilty in October to 10 counts of first-degree theft.
The Kent woman took more than $1 million in retirement funds from five men and women ages 74 to 90. Jamrus-Kassim remains in custody at the county jail in Seattle.
Prosecutors will recommend an exceptional sentence of five years, eight months based on the vulnerability of the victims. The standard sentence range is three years, seven months to four years, nine months.
Washington State Patrol troopers arrested Jamrus-Kassim in March 2011 in Kent. King County prosecutors charged her with 21 counts of first-degree theft.
Chicago-based Bankers Life and Casualty, one of the companies that Jasmine Jamrus-Kassim worked for as an independent agent, agreed in October to replace the money stolen by the agent.
State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler said an investigation by his office found that five clients of Jamrus-Kassim repeatedly cashed out large portions of their annuities with Banker’s Life and Casualty from 2007 to 2009. The money was then pocketed by Kassim. She resigned from Bankers in January 2011.
Kassim’s financial records showed thousands of dollars spent on clothes, jewelry and a trip to Mexico, according to the insurance commissioner’s office. They also show large payments to online psychic advisors, including $20,000 in charges from one psychic website in one month.
The payment amounts to the victims by Bankers were $512,112, $488,071, $116,070, $65,321 and $929. The victims were from Bellevue, Renton and Seattle. One of the victims died before learning that his money would be repaid.
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