OJAI : Insurance Agent Sentenced in Thefts

A 48-year-old Ojai insurance agent convicted of stealing more than $98,000 from six clients has been sentenced to three years and eight months in prison, a deputy district attorney said Monday.

Warren H. Korman was sentenced Friday on six felony grand theft convictions and several convictions for failing to file income tax, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeff Bennett, who heads the district attorney’s insurance fraud unit.

Korman, formerly employed by Willis & Griffith Insurance Co. in Ventura, was convicted in February on the grand theft and tax evasion charges.

The conviction stemmed from a joint investigation by officers from the Ventura Police Department, the district attorney’s office and the state Franchise Tax Board, Bennett said.

Investigators proved that Korman persuaded six clients to give him 31 unnecessary insurance premium checks between June, 1987, and March, 1990, which he then deposited into a personal bank account, Bennett said.

The premiums were used to make payments on Korman’s Ojai home, car, credit cards and off-track and sports gambling debts, Bennett said.

Korman was also ordered to pay $36,665 in restitution to the victims, Bennett said.