PROVIDENCE — A North Attleboro self-employed insurance broker has been charged in federal court with fraudulently obtaining tens of thousands of dollars in commissions by using his clients’ personal identification information, including ones who had died.
Bruno Francis Ragusa, 53, was freed on a $10,000 unsecured bond after an appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Providence, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Rhode Island said Wednesday.
Ragusa faces charges of wire fraud, identity theft, and aggravated identity theft. No plea was entered, according to court records.
It is alleged that Ragusa, through his North Attleboro-based company Atlantic Coast Senior Solutions, Inc., fraudulently obtained nearly $137,000 in sales commissions from Great Western Insurance Company, an Iowa-based life insurance carrier.
Ragusa allegedly affixed the electronic signatures and other personal identity information of clients on insurance policy applications and payment authorization forms for policies they did not request or authorize, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
The information was allegedly used to sign the clients up for end-of-life insurance policies and draw money to pay for the unauthorized policies from their bank accounts.
Ragusa allegedly submitted about 206 fraudulent policy applications from January 2019 to February 2023, about 150 of which the FBI determined were submitted 15 minutes apart, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
The investigation, according to prosecutors, revealed that some of the applications were being submitted in the names of people who were deceased.
Calls to the living “applicants” revealed that they did not know that policy applications had been submitted in their names and had not authorized Ragusa to submit the applications or payment authorization forms, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
When the life insurance carrier approved the application, the U.S. attorney’s office said they issued an advance commission and an additional commission for each month they received a payment.
If a policy is canceled shortly after being issued, the agent is required to return the advance commission paid by the company, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Based on the early policy cancelations, the U.S. attorney’s office alleges Ragusa owes Great Western Insurance Company about $70,380.
The Sun Chronicle has called and emailed a public defender listed as his lawyer for comment.
Ragusa’s license to sell insurance in Rhode Island was revoked in November, but his licenses in Massachusetts and Connecticut remain active, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
The case was investigated by the FBI with help from federal prosecutors in Massachusetts and the North Attleboro Police Department.
