North Carolina Insurance Dept. Adds 15 Agents to Fraud Division

The North Carolina Department of Insurance has expanded its criminal investigations division with the addition of 15 new special agents, according to a statement from North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey.

Causey said the expansion to nearly double the size of the existing team is part of his vision to eliminate insurance fraud in North Carolina.

On March 16, the 15 new special agents were sworn in by State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jackson as officers to the NCDOI Fraud Control Group.

“One of the first things I did when I took office was meet with our criminal investigations division,” said Causey. “I learned, because of the vast number of insurance fraud complaints in this state, we were shorthanded on the number of investigators to examine them.”

Each month, North Carolina receives between 400 to 500 criminal insurance fraud complaints.

In 2017, Causey’s first year in office, 334 people were arrested for insurance-related violations – almost 60 percent more arrests than 2016 under the previous administration, NCDOI said. Those arrests resulted in the recovery of approximately $14.1 million.

Insurance fraud costs consumers between 15 and 20 cents of every dollar they spend on insurance premiums.

The North Carolina General Assembly in 2017 appropriated $2.4 million to hire the additional agents in NCDOI’s criminal investigations division including a crime analyst, forensic accountant, attorneys and special agents.

Causey said with the addition of the 15 agents, he is determined to move forward in “stemming the tide of insurance fraud to save consumers even more money.”

The newly hired agents spent a week in NCDOI’s Special Agent Academy to learn the best methods for investigating insurance fraud.

North Carolina was the first state in the nation to set up a criminal investigations division within the Department of Insurance in 1945. As the state population has grown to more than 10 million people, NCDOI fell behind in keeping up with enough agents to investigate fraud.