Arkansas Suspends License of Agent Accused of Embezzlement

The Arkansas Department of Insurance has suspended the producer and agency licenses of Timothy Walley and the Tim Walley Insurance Agency Inc. of Little Rock for multiple alleged violations, including embezzlement and misappropriation of premium.

According to the department, Walley took money from customers and represented them as investments in his business for a specified rate of return. Instead, the department alleges, he used the money as personal funds and failed to make payments as agreed. He also is accused of depositing customers’ premium payments into his personal account.

On Sept. 25, 2009, Walley, then an agent for State Farm Insurance, accepted a $630 check from customer Ira Watkins to pay an auto policy premium. Instead of depositing the money into the premium fund account, Walley placed the payment into his personal account, the department alleges.

The commissioner’s order also states that beginning in 1999, Walley received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Theo and Fannie Burks as investments in Walley’s business, for which the Burks were promised rates of return between 8.5 percent and more than 10 percent, to be paid monthly. Beginning earlier this year, however, checks to the Burks were returned due to insufficient funds and Walley subsequently stopped making payments, the order alleges.

The order also states that Walley received nearly $1 million in investments from other customers, many of whom were issued checks for interest payments that were returned as insufficient.

Along with administrative penalties and sanctions, the department is seeking to permanently revoke all of the insurance licenses for Timothy Walley and the Tim Walley Insurance Agency. Walley is licensed as a health and accident, property, casualty, life, marine and surety agent, according to the commissioner’s order, AID No. 2010-058.

Topics Agencies Arkansas