Perry man, former Alfa ‘Agent of the Year,’ gets federal prison time in fraud case

Prosecutors say the agent used a customer’s money to cover other policyholders’ premiums.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – A former Warner Robins insurance agent who repeatedly won his company’s “Insurance Agent of the Year” award has been sentenced to federal prison for a premium payment scheme that prosecutors say he carried out to keep earning the title.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia, 44-year-old Jeremy Lasseter of Perry was sentenced Wednesday to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay $221,515.16 in restitution after pleading guilty to one count of bank fraud on August 27. Prosecutors said Lasseter paid the restitution in full at sentencing. There is no parole in the federal system.

According to the release, Lasseter owned an Alfa Insurance Agency group in Warner Robins and was named Alfa’s Georgia “Insurance Agent of the Year” for four consecutive years. Federal prosecutors said that beginning in March 2020, he directed one of his customers to make premium payments that he then used to pay premiums for other policyholders without her knowledge or consent.

Prosecutors said Lasseter sometimes instructed the victim to make checks payable to him rather than Alfa Insurance or to pay in cash, claiming it was “better for tax purposes.” The victim made more than $221,000 in payments that were never applied to her policies, the release said.

“The money taken from the victim has had a significant negative impact on her life,” U.S. Attorney William R. “Will” Keyes said in the release. “The defendant must be held accountable for defrauding her and abusing the trust placed in him by Alfa Insurance.”

Paul Brown, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta, said Lasseter’s actions “undermined the integrity of the insurance industry” and called the scheme a “betrayal of the victim’s trust.”

Prosecutors said the government maintains Lasseter committed the fraud in an effort to win the “Insurance Agent of the Year” award for an additional year and gain its associated perks.

The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Howard prosecuted it.