A Burien, Wash. business owner pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree theft on July 1 after defrauding insurance companies of more than $1.5 million over a four-year period.
Michael Alan Perkins owned Autoglass Express Inc. and Premier Auto Glass, LLC, both of which were run out of the 44-year-old's home just outside of Seattle, Wash. From September of 2005 through December of 2009, Perkins was billing insurers for original equipment manufacturer (OEM) glass, when in fact lower-cost aftermarket glass was being installed.
State Farm, one of the affected companies, was tipped off about the scheme by Lynx Services, a third-party administrator handling glass claims. The company saw a red flag in the unusually high number of OEM windshields being installed by Autoglass Express. Investigators from State Farm then began contacting policyholders and comparing the installed glass to the customers' bills, turning investigation over to the insurance commissioner's special investigations unit (SIU) after discovering Perkins' fraudulent behavior.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
