North Attleboro broker pleads guilty to committing life insurance fraud

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — United States Attorney Zachary Cunha said a North Attleboro insurance broker admitted to fabricating applications for end-of-life insurance policies in clients’ names in order to obtain insurance and collect over $135,000 dollars in commissions.

53-year-old Bruno Francis Ragusa was charged with wire fraud after creating the insurance plans without clients’ knowledge or consent.

Cunha said that Ragusa admitted to fabricating and submitting applications to purchase final expense policies in his clients’ names, using their personal identification information, and that he forged their signatures to do so.

Ragusa had all of the insurance correspondence directed to him, and had the payments directly wired from the clients’ bank accounts.

Cunha said Ragusa eventually collected a total of $136,956.56 in sales commissions.

His license to sell insurance in Rhode Island was revoked, but is still active in Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Ragusa is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 9.