2 Insurance Agents Agree to Repay $330,000

Two San Fernando Valley insurance agents who pleaded guilty to defrauding elderly women have agreed to pay more than $330,000 in restitution over the next five years and to serve one-year jail terms, prosecutors said.

Under a plea agreement, Eric Jacobs and Mitchell S. Horowitz will surrender April 2 to begin terms in the Los Angeles County Jail, after which they will serve five years probation. During a sentencing hearing last week, Superior Court Judge Bernard Kamins also ordered them to repay $330,952 to six women.

“The victims are all quite elderly,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Latin said. “They need the money desperately.”

Prosecutors charged Jacobs, 43, of Burbank, with five counts of grand theft and Horowitz, 39, of Northridge, with four counts of grand theft after the two were arrested last June. They faced maximum sentences of five years.

Jacobs repaid $44,000 Friday, Latin said. Horowitz told authorities that he is selling his residence to pay the same amount by April 2, Latin said.

The $88,000 to be paid by April 2 will be split among five women whom Jacobs and Horowitz victimized between 1984 and 1989, Latin said. The two men allegedly used a combination of charm and intimidation to persuade the women, all of them over 70 and living alone in the Silver Lake and Hollywood areas, to buy worthless insurance policies and shares in a phony investment company.