(Stillwater, Okla.) – Former Cushing insurance agent Mark Paul Lauderdale, 65, of Yale, was charged Friday with embezzling a total of $59,113 from various clients including the town of Ripley, the Ingalls Activity Club and multiple individuals during a seven-year period between Jan. 1, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2017.
Lauderdale was notified by a letter sent Friday from the office of Payne County District Attorney Laura Austin Thomas that if he does not voluntarily appear in court by Oct. 2, a warrant will be issued for his arrest, court records show.
If convicted of two counts of embezzlement over $25,000, Lauderdale could be given a 20-year prison term and a $20,000 fine, according to court documents filed by Payne County Assistant District Attorney Jeremiah Gregory.
An investigation began after the Oklahoma Insurance Department received a written complaint on April 6, 2017, from a representative of the non-profit Ingalls Activity Club, an affidavit by OID Anti-Fraud Unit investigator Mark Drummond said.
The representative “alleged that he had been paying Mark Lauderdale of Mark Lauderdale Insurance Agency in Cushing, Ok., regular premium payments for an insurance policy on behalf of the Ingalls Activity Club since 2010 and recently discovered that the policy had been cancelled in 2013 for non-payment of premium,” according to the affidavit.
“Lauderdale’s insurance producer license with the state of Oklahoma also expired in 2013,” the affidavit said.
Lauderdale never mentioned to the representative that the policy had been cancelled or that he no longer had a license to sell insurance, the affidavit alleged. “Lauderdale continued to take premium payments from Ingalls Activity Club through January of 2017,” and always provided the representative with a receipt, the affidavit alleged.
The representative “provided copies of the receipts to the Oklahoma Insurance Department along with copies of cancelled checks from the Activity Club’s account depicting where Lauderdale had deposited the checks into his bank account,” the affidavit alleged. The representative “estimated the amount of loss for the Ingalls Activity Club was in excess of $5,400,” the affidavit alleged.
Although Lauderdale’s license to sell insurance had expired on May 31, 2013, “Lauderdale has continued to sell and solicit insurance products by advertising his insurance services in the local telephone book and accepting payments for insurance policies,” the affidavit alleged.
“On July 31, 2017, Investigator Drummond and other members of the Anti-Fraud Unit served a search warrant at Lauderdale’s office in Cushing,” and seized Lauderdale’s business files dating back to 2013 and several receipt books, the affidavit alleged.
During an interview that day with the investigator, “Lauderdale admitted to taking money from the Ingalls Activity Center and the town of Ripley for the purpose of purchasing insurance policies. Lauderdale admitted that he had spent the money and did not provide an insurance policy for either entity,” the affidavit alleged.
On August 22, 2017, Lauderdale went to the Oklahoma Insurance Department and provided the investigator with a handwritten list of names, the affidavit alleged. “Lauderdale stated that he had received money from each person on the list for the purchase of or payment on an insurance policy,” the affidavit alleged.
“Lauderdale admitted that he did not forward the payments to any insurance company and spent the money on his personal expenses. Lauderdale expressed that he wanted to cooperate with the investigation and pay back each person he took money from,” the affidavit alleged.
“Investigator Drummond received copies of Lauderdale’s bank account records through the issuance of a Multi-County Grand Jury Unit subpoena. Drummond compared Lauderdale’s bank records with his receipt books and customer files.
“Investigator Drummond identified 14 individual victims that Lauderdale took money from and did not forward the money to an insurance carrier or apply it to their insurance policy. Lauderdale instead converted the money to his own personal use. The combined loss was approximately $59,113.38,” the affidavit alleged.
A total of 46 prosecution witnesses were listed on the two-count embezzlement charge, court records show.
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