San Bernardino County prosecutors charged a former Lake Forest insurance agent with trying to steal more than $47,950 from elderly customers, state officials said Monday, May 2.
Alan Douglas Armstrong, 56, faces five felony counts of theft from an elder in a case initially filed in San Bernardino County Court in February, according to court documents. He was formally produced on Monday in connection with the offenses allegedly committed between December 2018 and April 2019.
CDI officials said in a news release Monday that the California Department of Insurance launched an investigation into the behavior of the first licensed agent after receiving a complaint about a child from one of its customers. He learned that his parents had taken cash out of his annuity to personally loan Armstrong more than $47,950.
Investigators also found that Armstrong persuaded customers to withdraw money from an annuity and make purchases the next day. This cost the victims more than $24,000 in surrender fees.
“It is deeply saddened to think that people allegedly hunt elderly people to steal their hard-earned nest eggs,” California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said in a statement on Monday.
Insurance Department officials also accused Armstrong of falsely claiming that his clients would get more money back than they were punished for funding their investments. CDI officials said in their news release that they told them they were listed as beneficiaries as collateral in the $500,000 policy, but that policy did not exist.
The Orange County sheriff’s deputy arrested Armstrong on April 28. According to prisoner records, he attended a trial hearing on Monday, and remained in custody in exchange for $102,500 bail. The insurance department canceled his license on March 9.
It was not immediately clear from online records whether a lawyer had been appointed to defend him.
