Early this year, the California Department of Insurance (CDI) revoked Ghassan Ibrahim’s insurance license for allegedly making a false statement in an insurance claim, forgery and grand theft in a case involving many senior citizens. Ibrahim, 46 of Stockton had his hearing this summer at the Stockton branch of the San Joaquin County Superior Court . This hearing was ‘take two’ as Ibrahim fled the country before his original January 22nd hearing date. He returned late spring and was arrested on June 2nd with a $75,000 bail charge.
According to his arrest warrants and the CDI’s investigation, Ibrahim allegedly forged the signatures of multiple senior citizens on insurance applications for the purpose of securing a commission. He also allegedly used fictitious names to create insurance policies to get commissions. Many seniors who fell victim to his crimes never even talked with him. They just showed up for a treatment or to fill a prescription only to be told they were no longer covered by their insurance. They now had coverage under a different plan that either didn’t cover the doctor they were seeing, or the prescription drugs they were filling. One man was in the middle of getting a series of diagnostic tests done when Ibrahim, unbeknownst to this beneficiary, switched his coverage to a different plan in order to secure a commission. This man later received an enormous medical bill for tests that otherwise would have been covered by his original insurance.
From May 2003 until February 2009 Ibrahim was an agent for a life insurance company. He was terminated February 27, 2009 when the company claimed Ibrahim had submitted fraudulent and illegitimate applications, forged signatures, misrepresented premium amounts to applicants, submitted applications with falsified information and posed as an applicant during telephone personal history interviews.
The company said Ibrahim owes $23,275 for commissions obtained through the alleged illegal activity. Another company to which Ibrahim allegedly submitted false applications to found 84 instances of challenged or non-existent enrollments. That company claims Ibrahim owes $54,200 in paid commissions.
Until the license revocation, Ibrahim, held a life-only and variable contracts license with the California Department of Insurance and had been a licensed insurance agent in the state since 1989. Ibrahim is currently in jail; he applied ‘no contest’ at his hearing, basically meaning he pleaded guilty to charges, and was sentenced with 120 days in jail, 5 years probation and $9,500 in restitution to several victims of his fraud.
The CDI with 16 Enforcement Branch regional offices throughout the state has ramped up its investigations of such insurance fraud cases. Approximately 2,000 insurance fraud-related arrests have been made by the CDI’s enforcement division since 2007. Beneficiaries with questions and concerns of such case can contact:
- CDI Consumer Helpline at 800-927-4357, or
- California’s Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) project at 714-560-0309.
