Former Insurance Producer Pleads Guilty to Felony Theft Charge

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Former insurance producer Matthew Gingerich, 37, of Centralia, pleaded guilty to first-degree theft in Lewis County Superior Court on April 18. Gingerich misappropriated more than $30,000 in consumers’ premium payments. He will serve 90 days of electronic home monitoring and was ordered to pay more than $29,000 in restitution and $800 in court fees.

The charges were filed after an investigation by Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s Criminal Investigations Unit (CIU). Kreidler revoked Gingerich’s insurance producer license in February 2016. 

Gingerich was fired from employment with American Family Insurance after an audit revealed that he misappropriated some customers’ premium payments and concealed them by placing holds on the accounts so the customers would not receive notices that their policies were canceled for nonpayment. American Family was able to correct the policies of all but one affected consumer, whom they could not identify.