Claims Examiner Pleads Guilty to $500K Fraud

A former insurance claims examiner has sentenced to three to nine years in prison for stealing nearly $500,000 from two insurance companies for which she worked by forging and cashing claims checks over a 10-year period.

Lisa Kline was sentenced after pleading guilty to second degree grand larceny. She was also ordered to make $474,000 in restitution.

Kline, 42, an insurance company claims examiner, was arrested in July after a bank clerk noticed her depositing an unusual number of checks bearing other peoples’ signatures into her personal account.

A joint investigation by the New York State Insurance Department’s Frauds Bureau and Colonie police found that Kline created fake claims numbers to issue supplemental payments to policyholders with legitimate claims. She would then forge claimants’ signatures and countersign the checks instead of mailing them to policyholders.

The scheme was carried out when Kline was employed by Progressive between 2000 and 2006 and then later when she worked for Mercury Insurance Co.

Court action is still pending against two others also charged in the scheme. They are April Martin, 37, of Colonie, and Harry Mercado, 36, of Albany.

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Source: New York Insurance Department