Trumbull attorney David Quatrella pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge involving insurance fraud before U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford. According to Deirdre M. Daly, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Quatrella was part of a scheme to defraud insurers into issuing policies on the lives of elderly people for his and other investors”™ benefit ”“ a practice known as stranger-originated life insurance.
Quatrella and others, including insurance brokers based in California, New Jersey, and Florida, are accused of assisting elderly persons in applying for multimillion-dollar life insurance policies between 2008 and January 2016.
Quatrella and his co-conspirators offered the insured the promise of free life insurance for two years, after which the accused would attempt to sell the policy and provide a share of the proceeds to the insured. Quatrella and the others were then involved in the submission to a number of life insurance providers applications containing false and misleading information, which failed to disclose the third-party premium funding arrangements for the policies.
According to Daly”™s office, the co-conspirators received large commissions from the providers as a result of the issuance of insurance policies on the lives of the insured, and Quatrella personally profited by $272,000.
Quatrella pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and agreed to forfeit $272,000; he faces a maximum prison sentence of five years. Sentencing is scheduled for April 28.
