The owner of a Florida renovation contracting company was arrested for allegedly stealing more than $40,000 from consumers, Insurance Journal reports. The owner of Storm Restoration Specialists allegedly stole from clients who assigned their insurance benefits to him through assignments of benefits (AOB) contracts.
Wyatt Green, owner of Storm Restoration Specialists LLC, and his staff are accused of forging customer signatures on construction documents and insurance claim payment checks that required signatures from both the homeowner and mortgage lender. An AOB gives a third-party authority to file a claim, make repair decisions and collect insurance payments without the homeowners’ involvement.
Detectives from the Florida Department of Financial Services discovered that Green was hired by four homeowners to perform contracting work. Green’s office would directly receive insurance checks that required three signatures—one from the homeowner, one from the mortgage lender, and one from Storm Restoration Specialists LLC. Allegedly, Green directed his staff to forge homeowners’ signatures on the checks as well as added the mortgage lenders’ endorsement before depositing the checks into his bank account.
The investigations revealed that Green and his employees purchased 58 false bank endorsement stamps from a online manufacturer to aid in this scam.
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