Florida Insurance coverage Agent Charged with Embezzlement After Lawsuits – Cyber Tech

Florida authorities have arrested a widely known southwest Florida insurance coverage agent, charging him with larceny and embezzlement of premiums.

Reid McDaniel, 33, who was named the honorary mayor of North Fort Myers final yr however who additionally was going through a negligence lawsuit from a policyholder and a sexual assault grievance from an worker, was booked into jail Thursday by the Lee County Sheriff’s Workplace. He had not posted bond by late Thursday and a listening to was not scheduled till subsequent month, in response to the sheriff’s workplace.

The alleged embezzlement quantities to greater than $20,000 and fewer than $100,000, the arrest file reveals.

The Florida Division of Monetary Companies mentioned the costs stemmed from a grievance filed by a enterprise proprietor, who mentioned he had paid McDaniel Insurance coverage Options greater than $22,900 in premiums for 2 insurance coverage insurance policies in October. However the carriers canceled the insurance policies for non-payment.

A phone quantity for McDaniel was not in service Friday morning. NBC2 TV information in Fort Myers reported that McDaniel’s workplace area on Hancock Bridge Parkway was lately taken over by the enterprise subsequent to it, a roofing firm, and the McDaniel Insurance coverage Options signal out entrance was being dismantled.

McDaniel had been featured in a number of native TV information studies, talking about Florida property insurance coverage points.

The Florida Division of Monetary Companies license web page reveals that McDaniel held a legitimate normal traces/property and casualty agent’s license, a life and well being agent license, and an adjuster’s license. He holds lively appointments with 38 nationwide and Florida-admitted property insurance coverage carriers, together with among the largest firms within the trade.

McDaniel was reportedly well-known locally, regardless that he had been there only some years. In early 2023, he was named “mayor” of North Fort Myers after he raised greater than $8,500 for the native Chamber.

“I’m lucky to partake within the occasion. It means any person goes to champion the neighborhood, the Chamber, and produce some publicity as a pacesetter locally,” McDaniel advised the North Fort Myers Neighbor information web site final yr.

Publicity quickly adopted, and bother could have been brewing for a while. Final December, an aged policyholder received a judgment of $198,543 towards McDaniel in Lee County Circuit Courtroom. The girl had filed go well with after Hurricane Ian slammed the realm in 2022. She charged that she had paid greater than $2,200 in premiums for a cellular house coverage with Lloyd’s of London, however McDaniel by no means secured the protection.

When the house was decimated by the storm, the house owner found she had no protection.

Additionally in December, a gross sales agent employed at McDaniel’s company in 2022 mentioned in a lawsuit that he had repeatedly touched and groped her inappropriately, as soon as after consuming “no less than 4 whiskeys,” in response to the lawsuit. That case remains to be pending.

NBC2 TV mentioned that McDaniel had began an insurance coverage company in Indiana then offered it, moved to the Fort Myers space and began his company there in 2021. The Nationwide Affiliation of Insurance coverage Commissioners’ license web page reveals that McDaniel remains to be licensed in Indiana as a non-resident producer. HIs company in Greenwood, Indiana, nonetheless maintains a web site however the cellphone quantity was not in service Friday.

McDaniel beforehand labored within the resort enterprise till 2019, in response to his Linkedin web page.

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