News: 2009 Press Release

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner today announced that Byron Andres Prado, 21, of Northridge was convicted November 2 of one count of misdemeanor identity theft. He was sentenced to 53 days served in jail after committing perjury on insurance licensing applications.

"Falsifying documents and trying to obtain an insurance license is a criminal matter and could have placed the public at great risk," said Commissioner Poizner. "Because of the great work of our testing proctors, we were able to catch the bogus application before the test was given and a license was issued."

According to CDI investigators, Prado appeared at the downtown Los Angeles testing center for an insurance license examination and presented a false California driver's license to the testing proctors. The CDI proctors quickly identified the false ID and Prado was issued a citation by a California Highway Patrol officer acting as security at the testing site.

A subsequent CDI investigation showed Prado had lied under penalty of perjury on his application to be a licensed life and accident and health agent. Investigators also learned that Prado had a pattern of lying under penalty of perjury on at least two other occasions on government documents concerning his ability to work in the United States. He also possessed a fake Social Security card.

Commissioner Poizner oversees 16 CDI Enforcement Branch regional offices throughout the state. Approximately 1,900 insurance fraud-related arrests have been made by the Department of Insurance's enforcement division since Commissioner Poizner took office in 2007 - more arrests than have been made during any other two year period, under any previous insurance commissioner.