SEATTLE (AP) — A Chicago-based insurance company has agreed to reimburse five elderly retirees who lost more than $1 million to an alleged insurance scam.
Washington state Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler on Tuesday praised the decision by Bankers Life and Casualty but said he’s saddened that the payments come after one victim has died.
SeattlePI.com reports (http://bit.ly/ohkpZv) the victims ranged in age from 74 to 90. Prosecutors say they repeatedly cashed out large portions of their annuities and handed money over to Jasmine Jamrus-Kassim, an insurance agent in Kent, Wash. She told them she was reinvesting the money, but prosecutors allege she spent it on clothes, jewelry, a trip to Mexico, and a $20,000 bill for online psychic advice. The woman was charged in March with 21 counts of first-degree theft and her criminal case is pending. She worked for Bankers Life.
___
Information from: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://www.seattlepi.com/
