Caught After Years of Wrongdoing
Following a six-month investigation, former insurance agent Charles Stanley Tigner was arrested on a Tulare County Superior Court warrant. Among the 127 criminal violations charged in the warrant are insurance fraud, grand theft, false impersonation, possession of fictitious checks, and elder abuse. Tigner, who is also known by several aliases, was booked at the Tulare County Pre-Trial Detention Facility. Bail was set at $1 million. If convicted, the 62-year-old man, who allegedly received more than $81,000 from insurance companies and policyholders by fraudulent means, faces a maximum sentence of 69 years in state prison.
According to the CDI, Tigner, whose insurance agent license was revoked in 1979, has acted illegally as an agent for a number of years. Investigators allege that Tigner has a history of changing the life insurance policies of insureds into his own name and taking out loans on their policies without their knowledge. A search warrant was served at Tigner’s residence on June 23, 2000, and investigators identified other fraudulent claims allegedly submitted by Tigner as well as other evidence of life and homeowner insurance premium theft. Victimized companies included Zurich-Kemper Life Insurance, Foremost Insurance, Century-National Insurance, Ohio State Life Insurance, and Protective Life Insurance.
The CDI stated that Tigner, working under the business name “Select Services,” allegedly arranged for insureds to pay six-month or one-year insurance premiums directly to him. While Tigner made some premium payments, other policies were allowed to lapse. The CDI indicated that Tigner would allegedly change an insured’s mailing address to one of many post office boxes or other mailing addresses. Investigators reported that most of the fraudulent claims were made to Foremost for reported wind damage to mobile home awnings, which insureds later told investigators had never occurred.
The CDI also reported that during the course of Tigner’s insurance practices, he used the name of his son, Mark Tigner of Tulare, Calif. The CDI emphasized that Mark Tigner is a licensed insurance agent in good standing, who has no insurance business affiliation with Charles Stanley Tigner. Furthermore, Mark Tigner is not suspected or charged in any of Charles Stanley Tigner’s alleged criminal violations.