LOS ANGELES — Raffi Sarian, 32, of North Hollywood, was arraigned this week on four felony counts of identity theft and nine felony counts of forgery after allegedly altering information from professional licenses and diplomas to apply unearned “affinity group” discounts to his clients’ policies likely in an attempt to gain unearned commissions.
An affinity group is any organization or group formed around a common interest or for a specified purpose. This includes businesses, clubs, or other groups that exist for a common purpose such as labor unions, fraternal associations, veterans’ groups, senior citizen organizations, and service organizations.
An investigation by the California Department of Insurance found between 2015 to 2020, to apply unearned affinity group discounts to his clients’ insurance policies, Sarian collected, forged, and altered professional licenses issued by the California Board of Accountancy, the California Board of Registered Nursing, and the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. He also allegedly collected, forged, and altered diplomas issued by several California State Universities. Sarian did both of these illegal actions without his clients’ knowledge or permission, which resulted in a financial loss of $17,000.
In order to carry out the scheme, Sarian altered the names and personal information on the professional documents to reflect his clients’ information. Afterwards, he uploaded the forged documents to the insurance company. In an attempt to cover up the identity theft and forgery of the documents, Sarian claimed to either have no knowledge of how he came into possession of the altered documents or argued his clients had altered the documents before providing them to him.
The Department will be taking appropriate action against Sarian’s license. This case is being prosecuted by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Source: California Department of Insurance
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