Florida insurance seller nabbed in police sting, say local officials

Florida authorities have locked up Richard M. Incandela, on charges of selling insurance without a license and organized fraud exceeding $50,000. From December 2007 to September 2008, Mr. Incandela defrauded two elderly investors out of $489,426, proceeds that were supposed to cover premiums that were never paid to an insurance company, according to an arrest affidavit from Florida's Division of Insurance Fraud. Yesterday, state authorities reportedly caught Mr. Incandela in a sting operation as he met an undercover police detective and solicited a payment of $528,000 to buy non-existent life insurance policies. Now, he's being held in a Hillsborough County jail on $17,000 bail. For now, the arrest brings Mr. Incandela's checkered insurance selling past to a close. Last fall, St. John Greek Orthodox Church in Tampa, Fla. had filed suit against Mr. Incandela in a circuit court in Hillsborough County, alleging that back in 2006, the faux broker had approached them with a questionable fund raising plan. Elderly parishioners would sign up for life insurance policies, which Mr. Incandela supposedly promised to pre-sell to investors who would cover premiums. Both the church and the investors purportedly would make money when the parishioners expired. Church offocials later claimed in its suit that Mr. Incandela permitted the policies to lapse and that he hasn't paid the church some $94,848 in refundable deposits, according to published reports. Mr. Incandela allegedly kicked up a similar scheme in 2002, when he apparently solicited Mid-America Christian University to invest in life settlements. Last May, the university filed suit against Mr. Incandela in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Oklahoma. In that case, the school sent Mr. Incandela's settlements firm Solutions Enterprise of America Inc. $417,309 in premiums. However, the University alleged that Solutions delayed sending in the premiums to the insurance company Security Life of Denver Insurance Co., and the amount the carrier had received was $76,935 less than the premiums the university paid. The university said Mr. Incandela wrote out a check for the amount to reimburse the school, but it bounced. The school won judgment against Mr. Incandela and solutions in the amount of $119,935 plus interest.