Insurance agent gets 2 years for fraud

COEUR d'ALENE - A 56-year-old Spokane resident was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to two years in prison for insurance fraud.

James K. Sokolis also was sentenced to three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $357,000 in restitution by U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill.

He pleaded guilty to the charge in March.

According to a plea agreement, Sokolis was an insurance agent who previously owned and operated Rockwood Insurance, in Coeur d'Alene.

Sokolis sold his book of business in August 2010.

The new company hired Sokolis to work the book of business he sold to them until late January 2011.

The Press reported previously that Missoula-based Western States Insurance Agency acquired Rockwood Insurance. During this time, Sokolis misappropriated clients' premium payments by failing to purchase the policies paid for or failing to pass along the entire premium entrusted to him to the insurance carrier.

Sokolis admitted that he misappropriated a total of $356,629.

"Today's sentence sends a strong message that those who are entrusted with other people's money have an obligation to act honestly and for the benefit of their clients," U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson said in a press release. "Mr. Sokolis violated his clients' trust. For that he will spend the next two years in a federal prison. This office and our federal, state and local law enforcement partners will continue to prosecute financial crimes aggressively and cooperatively."

The case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service, the Idaho Department of Insurance and the Coeur d'Alene Police Department.