Paul Flanagan, Ranjit Kalsi, and Gregory Lee Martin have been charged with operating a tax fraud and identity theft scheme targeting military service members in San Diego County. The defendants allegedly unlawfully deceived service members into signing up and paying for unwanted life insurance policies and annuity contracts. The scheme cost service members approximately $4.8 million, according to the authorities.
The defendants allegedly earned over $2 million in commissions related to sales of nearly 5,000 applications for life insurance policies and annuity contracts.
“Service members have given so much to our country – they should not have to worry about being targeted and taken advantage of by malicious scammers,” said California's attorney general, Xavier Becerra. “We will not tolerate this predatory and criminal behavior. The California Department of Justice and our law enforcement partners will continue to vigorously prosecute scammers who prey on American heroes who fight for our country.”
“The victims of this scam were young women and men serving our country who were essentially tricked into signing up for something they didn't need and couldn't afford,” said San Diego County's district attorney, Summer Stephan. “Working with our law enforcement partners in California and at the Navy, we were able to shut down this operation and we will work to get money back into the pockets of service members who were taken advantage of.”
“These defendants defrauded and targeted an honored group of individuals who have dedicated their lives to protecting and serving our nation,” added California's insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara. “The alleged actions of these individuals have resulted in the loss of $4.8 million and have harmed thousands of military personnel. I am committed to working with the San Diego District Attorney's Office and the Attorney General's Office to put a stop to those who take advantage of hard working Californians.”
A San Diego grand jury issued a 69-count criminal indictment alleging that the defendants committed several crimes including conspiracy to commit forgery, conspiracy to commit a crime, grand theft of personal property, forgery of documents, the illegal use of personal identifying information, and conspiracy to commit a form of insurance fraud known as “twisting.” Twisting involves making misrepresentations to consumers to induce them to take out insurance policies, which is a crime.
The indictment further alleged that the defendants operated Go Navy Tax Services out of a trailer located just outside of Naval Base San Diego that advertised free income tax preparation services for military members. According to the indictment, the trailer featured military seals and symbols meant to deceive service members into thinking that the business was affiliated with the U.S. military. As alleged, during the free tax preparation service, defendants obtained personal identifying information from their victims and used it to open new bank accounts in the service members' names, and those accounts then were used to pay the unauthorized insurance premiums.
Steven A. Meyerowitz
Steven A. Meyerowitz, a Harvard Law School graduate, is the founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. He may be contacted at [email protected].