Six weeks after leaders of scheme to sign up south Florida homeless people for Affordable Care Act policies were sentenced to years in prison, the companies involved have agreed to pay more than $135 million to resolve a federal investigation.
AssuredPartners of South Florida, or APSF, an insurance brokerage that was once owned by AssuredPartners Inc., an Arthur J. Gallagher unit, pleaded guilty this week and will pay $27.6 million, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. Separately, AssuredPartners, a national partnership of insurance brokers that was not charged criminally, will pay $107 million to resolve False Claims Act violations, DOJ said.
“By manipulating the ACA marketplace and disrupting access to essential treatments, APSF compromised core federal health care protections and inflicted real harm on consumers who relied on those safeguards,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services inspector general said in a statement this week.
The resolutions prompted Gallagher, the global insurance brokerage, to quickly put out a news release of its own Tuesday. The firm said that APSF’s scheme to prey on vulnerable people took place in 2021 and 2022, well before Gallagher purchased Orlando-based AssuredPartners in 2025.
“Importantly, Gallagher became aware of the government’s investigation during its pre-acquisition diligence of AssuredPartners,” the statement reads. “APSF was not included in Gallagher’s acquisition of AssuredPartners, and Gallagher has never owned APSF.”
The investigation and potential settlement were considered under the purchase agreement, “the settlement amount was fully reserved, and settlement does not impact the purchase price Gallagher paid for AssuredPartners,” the statement added.
The web of companies involved in the fraud is complex. APSF was once helmed by Cory Lloyd, a licensed Florida insurance broker who was convicted of running the scheme to sign up homeless and addicted people in south Florida. Those sign-ups provided millions of dollars in commissions to Lloyd and others involved, even though the patients were not eligible for Affordable Care Act health insurance.
In February, Lloyd was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The Justice Department explained that Lloyd began the scheme at his previous firm, known as FloridaCare Insurance. In early 2021, APSF acquired assets of that company, and Lloyd was named president of APSF. The sign-up scheme continued for months afterward, DOJ noted.
A felony information document, filed Monday in federal court in Miami, names AP of South Florida as well as Fiorella Insurance Agency. Dafud Iza, formerly vice president of Fiorella, in Stuart, Florida, plead guilty in 2025 to his role in the ACA scheme. He agreed to provide information about his co-defendants and was sentenced in January to three years in prison.
A whistleblower who alerted authorities to the illegal activities will receive $24.3 million as their share of the recovery in this case, DOJ said. A judge will consider the plea agreement and consider further penalties at a later date.
Topics
Florida
A.J. Gallagher
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