The government of Switzerland is considering changes to their Insurance Contract Act – a 100 year old Swiss law. Among the proposed changes is one that says insurance brokers must be paid only by insurance buyers. If an insurer pays any sort of commission to the broker, the proposal says that the money (commission) must be passed on to the policy holder.
Day: May 15, 2009
Convicted Insurance Agent Remains Free
Confessed felon, Arnulfo “Half Guilty” Olivarez’s sentencing has been postponed again. He was to have been sentenced this morning. Court records indicate a new co-counsel for the convicted insurance agent has appealed for more time to prepare for sentencing and is in the process of identifying witnesses to testify on behalf of his client.
New sentencing date is August 14. This is the fifth sentencing date set in this case.
Convicted felon and ex-insurance agent, Aaron Gonzalez, a business associate of “Half Guilty” Olivarez and former school board member of the Edcouch Elsa Independent School District has had his sentencing postponed eight times and is now scheduled for sentencing next month. Both plead guilty to bribery of public officials to gain lucrative insurance contracts at taxpayer expense.
Unfortunately we believe that public corruption is widespread in the Valley. Most are tight-lipped about it, and a nodd-wink mentality is the norm. But what we are amazed to see is that corrupt politicians and greedy insurance vendors are becoming increasingly careless in their quest for access to the public largesse. Could that be because there is little or no penalties if caught?
Corrupt insurance agents and politicians could not achieve their goals without the consent and active partipation of insurance companies participating in the scheme. Many commission driven company reps. with quotas will “look the other way”, knowing all too well the behind the scenes illegal activities employed to steer business the “right way.” We suspect that some even get kickbacks from the agents who end up getting the business. It seems to have come down to insurance agents “bidding” against each other for insurance contracts, i.e. the agent with the highest bid (bribe) gets the nod from key board members.
We hope that the upcoming sentencing of both admitted criminals include long prison terms as an example to others who are tempted to steal from the taxpayers. And, we hope that the FBI has enough manpower to continue their work to uncover public corruption in the Valley.