A licensed property-casualty insurance agent in Palm Beach Gardens has been charged with keeping payments for contractors’ surety bonds, then using the funds for personal gain.
Checree Bryant, 51, of Innovative Bonding Services, was arrested last week and charged with embezzlement, fraud and larceny after investigators said she collected more than $90,000 for three bonds for a roofing company and a construction firm.
But Bryant never sent the funds to Old Republic Surety Co., an investigator with the Florida Department of Financial Services said in a probable cause affidavit in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.
“To date, and despite requests, she failed to remit the premium payments to Old Republic Surety Company for the three bonds and utilized the funds for personal use,” the affidavit reads.
Payments for bonds are due to the surety company within 45 days, the investigators noted. But bank records showed that Bryant paid for personal items instead of submitting the payments to the surety company.
Bryant may have targeted contractors over several months.
“I further believe there to be probable cause that Checree Bryant participated in a systematic, ongoing course of conduct with intent to defraud on or more people,” including “unsuspecting construction companies who expected insurance coverage on a contracted project,” the investigator wrote in the arrest information.
In addition to keeping the payments, Bryant allegedly earned a $30,000 commission on the sale of the bonds, the affidavit notes.
Bryant could not immediately be reached Wednesday at two phone numbers listed for her.
Florida DFS records indicate her property-casualty insurance producer license was first issued in 2005 and was still valid as of this week. She had been appointed through the years with dozens of property-casualty insurers, but appointments with two carriers were the only ones still active.
The Old Republic appointment was marked as inactive, although the expiration date was not until September, the DFS verification page shows.
Hearings in the case are set for July 5 and July 30. Bond for Bryant was set at $5,000, which Bryant apparently secured, and she was released from the county jail, records show.
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