Man charged with selling worthless medical malpractice policies

Friday, November 22, 2002
Associated Press
Naples Daily News

ORLANDO — An Orlando man was charged Thursday with soliciting thousands of Florida doctors to purchase worthless medical malpractice insurance.

Michael E. Rock, 33, was charged with a count each of grand theft and organized fraud, both first-degree felonies, and five counts of unlawful transaction of insurance, each of which is a third-degree felony.

He was booked into the Orange County Jail, and bond was set at $250,000.

Rock was the Florida promoter for Embassy Bonding and Surety, Ltd., a New Zealand company with an office in Illinois. Embassy has never possessed a certificate of authority to transact insurance in Florida and the insurance products sold by Rock were worthless, according to the Department of Insurance.

Embassy's operations in Florida were shut down in August by the agency.

"These unlicensed entities are preying on physicians who may be having difficulty obtaining medical malpractice insurance," Insurance Commissioner Tom Gallagher said in a statement. "Unlicensed insurance poses a grave and immediate risk of financial harm to doctors, and potentially their patients."

The telephone number for Embassy's Orlando office was disconnected.