Leon Lowenthal, accused of $40.3 million insurance fraud
A former Rockland County insurance broker has been sued for $40.3 million in an alleged life insurance rebating scheme.
Fidelity and Guaranty Life Insurance Co. accused Leon
Lowenthal of Monsey of fraud and conspiracy in a complaint filed Oct. 2 in U.S.
Bankruptcy Court in White Plains.
“Lowenthal engaged in a massive, fraudulent rebating
scheme,” the lawsuit states, and with other conspirators induced Fidelity to
pay “no less than $40,321,387 in commissions and bonuses through the submission
of false and fraudulent life insurance applications.”
The action was filed as an adversary proceeding in
bankruptcy court because Fidelity wants to block Lowenthal from using
bankruptcy to get out of paying the alleged fraudulent debt.
Lowenthal petitioned for Chapter 11 reorganization last
December, declaring $9,500 in assets and nearly $4.7 million in liabilities,
primarily for debts for his insurance brokerages, Prosperity LM Inc. and PW Insurance
Agency Corp.
His bankruptcy petition does not name Fidelity as a
creditor. Other creditors have filed claims for $9.2 million, nearly twice as
much as Lowenthal has listed.
He acknowledged nearly $3.4 million in “questionable loans,”
in an affidavit, many of which “may be unenforceable under usury laws or
inflated because there has been no accounting for cash repayments.” He also
stated that “certain of my creditors assert that their claims against me arise
from a Ponzi scheme.”
Lowenthal sold Fidelity life insurance policies from 2015 to
2017. His insurance license was revoked in 2018.
Fidelity claims that several co-conspirators loaned
Lowenthal money to fund life insurance policies. He created sham trusts for the
funds and for the policies, according to the complaint, and used the loans to
pay the first year of premiums.
After a year, the insurance policies were allowed to lapse.
Lowenthal and his funders allegedly profited, because
Fidelity pays 20% to 55% more in commissions and bonuses during the first year
of a policy than it receives in premiums. Its expectation is that it will make
up the difference as policies are kept in force for years.
Fidelity does not allow policies to be bought on borrowed
money, according to the complaint, and the applications Lowenthal submitted
affirmed that the premiums would not be paid with borrowed money.
Lowenthal allegedly used the commissions to repay the
funders and he pocketed what was left over.
For example, $800,550 in premiums were paid for a $5 million
policy in 2016, and Fidelity paid Lowenthal $950,000 in commissions. When the
policy lapsed after one year, Lowenthal and his funder allegedly netted
$149,450.
Fidelity claims that it paid Lowenthal nearly $4.5 million
in commissions and bonuses. For his part in the alleged scheme he used the
money to buy two houses and a commercial property in New Jersey.
In the bankruptcy petition, Lowenthal also listed potential
debts totaling $1.1 million to Fifth Third Bank for three home loans he
co-signed “for friends as a favor.”
He declared a $162,735 obligation to the IRS, though the
agency claims it is owed $203,447.
Among the claims filed against him are $7.6 million from
five individuals and a company who also are named in Fidelity’s complaint as
life insurance policy funders.
Lowenthal states in his affidavit that his father-in-law –
identified as Philip Herzog and as a life insurance funder in Fidelity’s
complaint – has created a $600,000 fund for paying his creditors.
“I have almost no assets,” Lowenthal said. “My goal is to
make a fresh start.”
Fidelity is represented by Manhattan attorneys Frank Taylor,
Francisco Vazquez and Julie H. Firestone.
Lowenthal is represented in the bankruptcy by Bedford
attorney John W. Mitchell and Manhattan attorneys Sheldon Eisenberger, Mark A.
Frankel and Sheldon H. Gopstein. They did not respond to an email request for
comment on behalf of their client.
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