One of the oldest insurance agencies in Texas has been named in a federal lawsuit brought by an AIG company, alleging that the agency was part of an elaborate fraud scheme involving forged signatures and fake policies for thousands of apartment residents in the state. The agency, Sanford & Tatum Insurance Agency, filed a crossclaim in Kentucky claiming that they were also victims of the scheme.

The suit, Lexington Ins. Co., v. Ambassador Grp., No. 3:20-CV-00330-DJH-LLK, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 253438 (W.D. Ky. 2020), was initially brought in 2020 by Lexington Insurance Co., an AIG subsidiary. State National Insurance Co., and State National Specialty Insurance based in Texas joined later in 2020. The carriers argued that Brandon White, of Kentucky, and his Ambassador Captive Solutions,  were involved in at least seven schemes that sold millions of dollars worth of fake policies to youth baseball teams and leagues, to surrogate mothers, to a waste-removal company, and construction companies. The schemes involved using offshore captive insurance cells to give legitimacy to bogus liability, homeowners, workers compensation, health and accident policies. The suit asks the court to bar White and his firms from using the carriers' names and to turn over profits from the schemes, along with treble damages.

In furtherance of the schemes, Ambassador and White forged or caused to be forged signatures of State National executives, at times using signatures of individuals never employed with State National. The defendants also forged emails and invoices purportedly issued by the insurer.