Tonja Van Roy, Fine Art Insurance Policy Scam, California 2026

A former Northridge insurance agent, Tonja Van Roy, 59, of Las Vegas, has been sentenced to 50 months in federal prison for defrauding a lender out of $3.7 million by submitting bogus applications for fine art insurance policies for commercial clients.

The scam, which lasted from January 2021 to December 2023, involved Van Roy creating and submitting dozens of fraudulent finance agreements to AFCO Credit Corp., a Lake Forest, Illinois-based provider of insurance premium finance.

Van Roy made up the insurance policy numbers she used and forged the electronic signatures for fictitious insureds. She used the borrowed money to fund her lifestyle, which included payments on dozens of credit cards.

When the loans from AFCO came due, Van Roy submitted additional fraudulent finance agreements to AFCO, and used the proceeds from the new loans to make it appear as though the old loans had been repaid.

Van Roy has more than 25 years of experience working as an insurance agent, during which time she sold countless insurance policies and worked for many different insurance agencies before founding her own.

Van Roy pleaded guilty on January 6 to one count of wire fraud. Judge Stephen V. Wilson sentenced her to 50 months in federal prison and ordered her to pay $1,880,237 in restitution.

The investigation into this matter was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations and the California Department of Insurance. Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Brown of the Major Frauds Section prosecuted this case.

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