Former Virginia Insurance Agent Pleads Guilty to Fraud

A former Virginia insurance agent pled guilty last week to wire fraud related to a scheme to pocket the premiums he was paid for policies he sold.

According to court documents, Thomas Robert Hoyt, of Melfa, told certain clients to pay premiums to him and that he would forward the payments to the insurance carriers for which he was an agent.

In response to complaints, the Virginia Bureau of Insurance opened an investigation in June 2021. In September 2021, Hoyt agreed to the permanent revocation of the insurance licenses for himself and Hoyt Insurance.

According to court documents, Hoyt then sold his book of business to another independent insurance agency. Hoyt falsely represented that all premiums due on policies that were part of the purchase had been paid to the respective insurers and that there were no pending investigations.

The acquiring agency provided Hoyt with a $27,282.28 down payment. However, the agency soon discovered that a “significant number had lapsed or were never in place because Hoyt had failed to pay the insurance carriers” the required premiums, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

In August 2022, the insurance regulator referred the matter to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), which found that Hoyt had repeatedly assured his clients they had a valid insurance policy, collected premium payments from them, and then used the payments for personal use rather than forwarding them to the insurance companies.

The investigators found that Hoyt fraudulently obtained approximately $164,345.

Hoyt is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 10.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Gantt is prosecuting the case.