Chula Vista
A Chula Vista insurance broker charged with faking a death to collect on a life insurance policy pleaded guilty to federal mail-fraud charges Tuesday before the scheduled start of his trial.
Prosecutors had accused Arsenio Albert Ainza of submitting a fraudulent $200,000 life insurance claim on behalf of an accomplice, complete with cremated human remains purported to be those of the deceased, according to Assistant U.S. Atty. Carol C. Lam. After the Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Co. paid the claim, its investigators found the “dead” policyholder living in Ensenada, Mexico, Lam said.
Ainza, whose trial was to begin Tuesday before U. S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving, pleaded guilty after working out an agreement with prosecutors, according to Lam. In exchange for his plea, no charges will be filed against him in a similar case involving the Sovereign Life Insurance Co., Lam said.
Ainza’s wife, Anna S. Ainza, pleaded guilty Monday to obstructing the mails in the Sovereign Life case. Lam said she will recommend probation for Anna Ainza. Arsenio Ainza faces a maximum sentence of five years, she said. Both remain free on a $50,000 bond, pending sentencing Oct. 16.
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