Former head of Baldwin insurance agency arraigned

Jericho resident Joseph Koch, a past president of Baldwin’s Louis Koch Insurance Agencies Inc., was arraigned on Nov. 3 on a grand jury indictment for pocketing insurance premiums instead of sending them to insurance companies on behalf of his clients, District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced.

Koch was arraigned on two counts of second-degree grand larceny, third-degree grand larceny and fourth-degree grand larceny. He was arrested on Aug. 30, 2012.

Rice said that between May 8, 2009 and March 31, 2010, Koch, as president of The Louis Koch Insurance Agencies, Inc., was paid $648,000 in insurance premiums from a Queens commercial property management company which were not forwarded to several insurance companies for which he was acting as agent.

On June 26, 2009, Koch stole $10,572 from the same Queens commercial property management company as a premium payment made by the company for an insurance policy Koch never purchased on their behalf, according to Rice.

Koch also failed to forward insurance premium payments made by other clients to insurance companies and insurance brokers, including $51,250 to a Cincinnati-based insurance company; $20,000 to a Woodbridge, New Jersey-based insurance broker; and $2,525 to a Fairview Park, Ohio-based insurance broker, the district attorney said. 

Koch paid $13,230 back to the Cincinnati-based insurance company after the company retained a collection agency to collect the debt, Rice said. Koch paid back the Fairview Park, Ohio-based insurance broker in full as the result of DA Rice’s investigation.

Between March 30, 2005 and July 31, 2012, Koch stole $97,550 from a Florida woman, consisting of funds, which were given to Koch for her benefit by three of her nephews and a niece to be paid out to the woman in a certain amount each month until the funds were exhausted, according to Rice.

In the course of Koch’s schemes, he stole a total of $829,960, of which he has since paid $222,160. The remaining amount outstanding is $607,800, Rice added.

 DA investigators revealed that Koch spent stolen money on personal expenses, such as purchases at retail stores, country clubs, gambling, Mercedes Benz car payments, income taxes, and home mortgage payments.

“Honesty in business dealings shouldn’t be a relic of a bygone era,” Rice said. “Rather, it’s a bedrock virtue upon which this country was built, and one worth defending on behalf of the honest businessmen and women in Nassau and beyond.”

 Bail was set at $100,000 bond or $50,000 cash. Koch faces up to five to 15 years in prison if convicted of the top charge. He is due back in court on Dec. 2.