Orlando malpractice insurance agent charged with fraud

Orlando Business Journal
11-22-02

Michael E. Rock, 33, of Orlando, was arrested on Nov. 21 on charges of soliciting thousands of Florida doctors to buy fraudulent medical malpractice insurance.

Rock was the primary Florida promoter for Embassy Bonding and Surety Ltd., a New Zealand company with an office in Illinois. Embassy, however, doesn't have state permission to sell insurance in Florida, and the products Rock sold were worthless, according to Florida insurance officials.

According to Department of Insurance fraud investigators, in June, Rock solicited nearly 10,000 doctors' offices to buy medical malpractice insurance through Embassy. Several doctors paid Rock more than $158,000 for coverage.

Statewide Prosecutor Melanie Ann Hines says her office is charging Rock, of 1650 Natchez Trace Blvd., with one 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. Rock was arrested at his home on the morning of Nov. 21 by Department of Insurance fraud investigators and booked into Orange County Jail. Bond was set at $250,000.

Investigators also executed a search warrant at Rock's home for records of the sale of fraudulent insurance.

Richard B. Bogle of the Office of Statewide Prosecution in Orlando will prosecute the case in the Ninth Judicial Circuit of Florida. The Office of Statewide Prosecution is part of the Florida Department of Legal Affairs.

The state Insurance Department issued an immediate final order in August shutting down Rock and Embassy's operations. Within the week, he ordered a second entity, Physicians Exchange Association, to stop targeting health care providers with phony medical malpractice insurance. Department regulators urge medical providers seeking coverage to make sure the company they are considering doing business with is licensed to do business in Florida. It is not enough that the insurance agent is licensed, they say.

Investigators encouraged anyone with information about others who may have bought fraudulent insurance from Rock to call the Orlando office of the Insurance Department at (407) 245-0875.

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