Jennifer Summerlott, a customer service representative for Ft. Lauderdale-based Fairway Insurance Group, LLC, has been charged with stealing more than $1 million from the agency. The authorities accused Ms. Summerlott of orchestrating an elaborate scheme to defraud her employer through the use of fake insurance invoices to reroute company funds for her personal financial benefit.
According to prosecutors, Ms. Summerlott served as the accounts payable and commercial lines manager for Fairway from 2006-2015. As alleged, in 2015, account irregularities were noticed by other Fairway staff members who, after suspecting that they might have uncovered insurance fraud, reported their findings to Fort Lauderdale's police department. The case was referred to insurance fraud investigators within the Florida Department of Financial Services' Division of Investigative and Forensic Services (“DIFS”).
Prosecutors said that the subsequent investigation revealed that, between 2010 and 2015, Ms. Summerlott had created and submitted dozens of fake electronic invoices that supposedly were from various insurance companies that regularly conducted business with Fairway. As alleged, Ms. Summerlott then would prepare company checks tied to Fairway's company account to pay these fabricated invoices. Doing so enabled Ms. Summerlott to retrieve the fake payments and divert them to a personal bank account, according to the government.
As alleged, the DIFS' investigation found that Ms. Summerlott refinanced 40 insurance policies that Fairway clients had previously paid in full. As a result, Fairway received checks from third-party financing agencies to cover the cost of the insurance premiums. Ms. Summerlott used those payments to cover up the company losses that accrued as a result of her fake invoice scheme, according to prosecutors.
Ms. Summerlott was arrested and transported to the Broward County jail. She was charged with four first-degree felonies, including organized scheme to defraud, grand theft, and diverting insurance trust funds.
Steven A. Meyerowitz
Steven A. Meyerowitz, a Harvard Law School graduate, is the founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. He may be contacted at [email protected].