Ex-Insurance Adjuster Pleads Guilty to Embezzlement in Pa.

A Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty last week to embezzling more than $400,000 from an insurance company and using the money to buy expensive sports cards, sports memorabilia and vehicles.

Richard Slonchka, of Kennedy Township, was a claims adjuster with Universal Underwriters Insurance Co., now known as Zurich, federal prosecutors said.

Between April 1997 and April 2002, Slonchka had the insurance company write 140 checks totaling more than $400,000 purportedly for workers’ compensation claims he had approved, prosecutors said. The money, instead, was used to buy various goods for himself, prosecutors said.

Slonchka is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 31.