MIAMI LAKES, Fla. – A Miami Lakes insurance agent is facing multiple felony charges after state investigators said he personally “pocketed” a more than $220,000 insurance premium on a condominium association’s policy.
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But he’s already staring down a three-year federal prison sentence in an unrelated case for an even bigger swindle.
Authorities said the agent in question is Heleonel Gonzalez, who runs Sharp Insurance Agency at 6175 NW 153rd St., and the victims were the owners of the Wilshire Condominium, located at 1250 NE Miami Gardens Drive, just outside of North Miami Beach.
According to an arrest report, investigators with the Florida Department of Financial Services said that the association paid Gonzalez, 48, the $220,624.38 premium in July 2023.
But authorities said when asked to produce a copy of the policy, Gonzalez “kept making excuses for not providing” it.
Investigators said Gonzalez purchased the policy but canceled it after three months, leaving the association without coverage for nine months.
Authorities said bank records showed the money went to Gonzalez’s personal account.
The $220,000 investigators said was stolen pales in comparison to the $6 million Gonzalez was convicted of stealing in a Georgia federal court case in November. He pleaded guilty to bank fraud for orchestrating a scheme to defraud that state’s Peach State Federal Credit Union.
Authorities said he “used the loan proceeds to pay personal debts and expenses.”
According to trade publication Insurance Journal, a judge handed Gonzalez a 41-month prison sentence and ordered that he pay $5 million in restitution.
He’ll also “have to forfeit a property he purchased in the ski resort area of Park City, Utah,” according to the publication.
In the South Florida condo case, authorities arrested him on felony charges of first-degree grand theft, diversion of $100,000 or more in insurance funds, organized scheme to defraud and uttering forged instruments.
As of Wednesday, he was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $35,000 bond.