Former Koch insurance president charged with stealing $648,000

Jericho resident Joseph Koch, 54, a past president of Baldwin’s Louis Koch Insurance Agencies Inc., was arrested on Aug. 30 and charged with stealing $648,000 from a client.

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice alleged that Koch collected the funds to pay insurance premiums, but then spent the money on cars, country club memberships, his income taxes, mortgage payments and gambling.

Rice’s charges center on a two-year period between June 2009 and June 2011, when, she claims, Koch, then the president of the agency, collected the money from a commercial property management company. “Instead of using that money to pay various insurance companies for which he was acting as their agent, however, Koch stole the money for himself,” read a statement from Rice’s office.

“Mr. Koch’s theft left his client without coverage and facing potentially serious liability issues, but all he cared about was living the high life on somebody else’s dime,” Rice said on Aug. 30. “It’s unimaginable that he thought he could get away with so brazenly flaunting the theft of more than a half million dollars.”

Koch, who pleaded not guilty in First District Court in Hempstead last week, was charged with three counts of second-degree grand larceny, third-degree grand larceny and first-degree scheme to defraud, and faces up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted. Judge Rhonda Erin Fischer set bail at $50,000 cash or $100,000 bond. Koch is due back in court on Sept. 13.

Rice’s office credited the New York State Department of Insurance, part of the State Department of Financial Services, with bringing the alleged theft to light, and the two agencies investigated the matter jointly. “The defendant in this case used a position of trust to cheat an innocent client,” said Benjamin M. Lawsky, superintendent of financial services. “The Department of Financial Services is committed to combating crimes like this, which victimize innocent people and undermine the integrity of the insurance industry.”

Koch’s attorney, Stacy Eves, could not be reached for comment as the Herald went to press.