Local man pleads guilty to insurance fraud

Moorpark resident Andrew Sean Korotzer, 40, pleaded guilty on Dec. 20 to one count of grand theft and one count of identity theft in his scheme to defraud the Prudential Life Insurance Company into paying him commission that he had not earned.

Korotzer, a licensed life insurance agent and owner of Andrew Korotzer and Associates, submit

ted more than 450 fraudulent life insurance applications to Prudential Insurance and collected commissions for writing policies for people who did not exist or clients who did not know about the policies and did not intend to pay for them.

Prudential paid Korotzer more than $45,000 for the bogus applications.

Korotzer is expected to make full restitution at sentencing. If he pays restitution, he can be sentenced up to one year in jail and then placed on probation for up to five years. If he does not make restitution, he can receive up to three years and eight months in prison.

Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 21.