WOMAN CHARGED SECOND TIME FOR STEALING INSURANCE FUNDS

A woman, arrested a month ago on charges of stealing more than $100,000 from the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association (FIGA), has been arrested a second time on charges that she stole more than $310,000 from another insurance company, said Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher.

Shirley J. Kay, 42, of 7651 Gate Parkway, Apt. 308, was re-arrested on charges of insurance fraud and grand theft.  She was booked into the Duval County Jail, with bond set at $500,000.  Kay was arrested in March on similar charges.  Both arrests were a result of investigations by the Department of Financial Services, Division of Insurance Fraud.  If convicted on all charges, she faces as much as 60 years in prison.  The 4th Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office is prosecuting both sets of charges.

“When insurance companies suffer such losses, the costs are passed on to all of us in the form of higher premiums, and that has   a detrimental effect on the economy of the entire state,” said Gallagher, who oversees the Department of Financial Services.  “The bond reflects the seriousness of her alleged actions. I appreciate the investigators and the prosecutor for working so quickly to bring these cases to prosecution.”

Kay, a claims adjuster, worked at Jacksonville-based Old Dominion Insurance Company from 1997 to 2002.  Investigators determined that from around October 1999 to September 2002, she  embezzled more than $310,000 from Old Dominion by writing checks to a fictitious vendor and depositing the checks into her personal checking account.  Investigators said it was the same scheme she used to embezzle about $104,000 from FIGA, also headquartered in Jacksonville, from 2002 up until last month.

The Department of Financial Services, Division of Insurance Fraud, investigates various forms of fraud in insurance, including health, life, auto, property and workers' compensation insurance.  Anyone with information about this case or another possible fraud scheme should call the department's Fraud Hotline at 1-800-378-0445.  A reward of up to $25,000 may be offered for information leading to a conviction.