Former Agent in Washington Sentenced For Stealing $1 Million-Plus From Clients

A former insurance agent who stole more than $1 million from elderly clients has been sentenced to 75 months in prison.

Jasmine Jamrus-Kassim was arrested in March 2011 after an investigation by the state insurance commissioner’s Special Investigations Unit found that Kassim had taken $1,052,088 from five of her clients, according to Wahington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler.

“This rogue agent shamelessly took advantage of vulnerable clients,” Kreidler said in a statement. “In some cases, she stripped people of their life’s savings.”

The clients, aged 74 to 90, thought that the money was being reinvested, but Kassim pocketed the money, and her financial records show thousands of dollars spent on clothes, jewelry, online psychics, and a trip to Mexico, according to investigators.

Jamrus-Kassim, an independent agent, sold annuities for Bankers Life and Casualty. Bankers Life agreed to repay the victims, as well as any taxes and penalties they incurred.

The investigation was launched after one of the victims, a 90-year-old woman from Renton, filed a complaint with the insurance commissioner’s office.

Jamrus-Kassim plead guilty on Oct. 31, 2011 to 21 counts of first-degree theft and one count of attempted first-degree theft. She reaffirmed her guilty plea on Feb. 17, 2012.

Topics Fraud Agencies Washington