Former Northridge insurance executive gets prison time for fraud scheme tied to fine art policies
Former Northridge insurance executive gets prison time for fraud scheme tied to fine art policies
LOS ANGELES — A former Northridge resident was sentenced Monday to more than four years in federal prison for defrauding a lender out of $3.7 million by submitting bogus applications for fine art insurance policies for commercial clients, but instead using the money for herself.
Tonja Van Roy, 59, who formerly operated a Northridge-based insurance agency, was sentenced in downtown Los Angeles by U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson, who also ordered her to pay $1.88 million in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Van Roy pleaded guilty in January to one count of wire fraud.
According to court documents, Van Roy owned and ran Pegasus Insurance, a company specializing in insurance policies covering art collections.
From January 2021 to December 2023, Van Roy created and submitted dozens of fraudulent finance agreements to AFCO Credit Corp., an Illinois-based provider of insurance premium finance, purportedly to finance insurance policies she claimed to have sold to art galleries, court papers show.
Van Roy made up the insurance policy numbers she used and forged the electronic signatures for fictitious clients. She used the borrowed money to fund her lifestyle, which included payments on dozens of credit cards.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, when the loans from AFCO came due, Van Roy submitted additional fraudulent finance agreements to AFCO, and used the proceeds from the new loans to make it appear as though the old loans had been repaid.
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