YULEE, Fla. – Florida insurance investigators arrested a Folkston, Ga., man this week accused of accepting insurance premium payments from two clients for insurance policies that were never purchased.
According to the Florida Division of Insurance Fraud, nearly $40,000 in premium payments was paid to William David Rodeffer III on these two policies, one of which was for workers' compensation insurance. The consumer who believed he purchased a workers' compensation policy had an employee who was injured and as his employer, he was left to cover an added $30,000 in medical bills and lost wages. In total, early $70,000 in financial losses were caused by Rodeffer.
Rodeffer was once licensed as an insurance agent in Georgia and was working with an agent in Georgia but moved by Yulee when they opened a second office there. Florida officials said he applied for a license in in the sate, but was denied because of his criminal history, meaning he was not qualified to transact insurance business in Florida.
Investigators said that Rodeffer continued to illegally sell insurance policies in Florida for three years despite his denied application for licensure. It was during this time that he was accused of accepting premium payments from two clients for policies he never purchased, meaning that customers never had coverage.
One of the clients, a 91 year-old Floridian, thought he purchased a workers' compensation policy from Rodeffer. It wasn't until one of the workers under the policy was injured and filed a claim against the policy sold by Rodeffer that it was realized the policy never existed. At least 10 premium payments were made only to find out that all those payments were kept by Rodeffer leaving the 91 year-old without workers' compensation coverage and $30,000 in medical bills to cover.
The second client, American Legion Post 283, was led to believe they held general liability property insurance coverage after providing multiple premium payments to Rodeffer. The investigation went on to show that Rodeffer failed to obtain insurance coverage for them as well.
Rodeffer is currently awaiting trial in Georgia for similar charges and had previously been charged in 2014 by the Nassau County Sheriff's Office for a separate but similar offense.