Joseph Koch arrested on new grand larceny charges

Joseph Koch, a past president of Baldwin’s Louis Koch Insurance Agencies Inc., was arrested on Nov. 4 for borrowing $150,000 in December 2011 and not paying the victim back, Nassau County police said.

According to detectives, a male victim reported to police that Koch, 56, of Jericho, borrowed $150,000.00 in December of 2011 promising to pay the victim the full amount in March 2012. The defendant showed the victim a list of people that owed him money which lead the victim to believe that he would receive his money.

When March 2012 arrived, Koch made no attempt to pay the money back. In October 2012, Koch gave the victim promissory notes that stated he would pay the victim back with interest. The defendant also gave the victim five checks of various amounts that represented repayment towards the loans, but the five checks returned with insufficient funds. After an investigation by detectives it was discovered that Koch produced fictitious documents and checks to impede the recovery of the victims’ money.

Officers from the Bureau of Special Operations and detectives from Crimes Against Property Squad placed Koch under arrest at his home without incident. He was charged with second-degree grand larceny and was arraigned on Nov. 5 at First District Court in Hempstead.

As reported in last week’s Herald, Koch was also arrested in August 2012 and 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, according to District Attorney Kathleen Rice. Koch was arraigned on two counts of second-degree grand larceny, third-degree grand larceny and fourth-degree grand larceny. He faces up to five to 15 years in prison if convicted of the top charge and is due back in court on Dec. 2.