Florida Adjuster Convicted for Sending Carrier Checks to His Own Fake Firm

A former staff adjuster for a large Florida insurance carrier has been found guilty of defrauding the insurer out of more than $580,000.

A federal jury in Orlando last week said that James Octavias Tobias Owens, 34, from the Orlando area, was guilty on 10 counts of wire fraud committed in 2021 and 2022. A sentencing date has been set for Dec. 9. Owens faces up to 20 years in prison on each count.

Prosecutors said Owens would reopen claims that had been settled, add new, falsified estimates for additional work on the property, then cause checks to be issued to his own fake firm, known as Bradford Construction & Roofing LLC. He used the proceeds for clothing, jewelry, hotel rooms and other luxuries, prosecutors said.

All told, the payouts amounted to more than half a million dollars, most of which Owens will likely be ordered to repay to the insurance company.

The carrier was not named in Owens’ March indictment nor in a news release from the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida. But exhibit lists in the court file show exhibits from Frontline Insurance, based in Lake Mary, Florida, and witnesses included Frontline’s chief claims officer.

Florida’s Department of Financial Services records show a James O. Owens, of Casselberry, Florida, as an all-lines adjuster. His license was issued in August 2024, some two years after the fraud occurred. His license page shows no qualifying appointments but does show an inactive appointment with another insurance company.

Frontline representatives could not immediately be reached for comment Monday evening.

The Florida Secretary of State corporation records show that Bradford Construction and Roofing was registered in 2021 to Octavias Tobias, with the same address as Owens in Casselberry. Owens could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon. He was represented in court by a federal public defender.

A filing by prosecutors also show that Owens created Atlas Weather Forensics LLC, and Owens’ 9-year-old son was listed as manager. That company billed Owens’ employer for weather services. In 2020, the insurer asked Owens to stop using Atlas for claims verification services. He agreed but did not disclose his ownership of the weather firm, the trial brief notes. That’s when he formed Bradford Construction.

Owens set up fake email addresses for the construction firm, and emailed himself from his Frontline email address, the court document shows.

“After Bradford was established as a vendor in the Victim Company’s system, the defendant used his access to specific claims from the Victim Company’s customers to cause Bradford to prepare comparative estimates that were not needed—and that were typically for claims that had already been paid out,” the trial brief by assistant U.S. Attorney Chauncey Bratt reads.

The court file does not show how the fraud came to light, or why it was investigated by the FBI. But the prosecutors’ trial brief to the court indicates that Owens cashed or deposited the insurer’s checks at ATM machines in Florida, and the server for those machines was outside the state, likely making it a federal offense.

Topics Carriers Florida