Hiawatha man pleads guilty to insurance fraud

CEDAR RAPIDS — A Hiawatha man has pleaded guilty to committing fraud while working as an insurance agent.

Frank Tarasi, 36, pleaded guilty Thursday in Linn County District Court to one count of insurance fraud/application submission, a Class D felony. He was given a deferred judgment and will be placed on unsupervised probation for a year. He also was ordered to pay a $1,025 civil penalty.

Tarasi, who worked as an agent with Daley Insurance Agency in Cedar Rapids, admitted to using altered or false information when submitting an application for life insurance for a client on Jan. 6, according to a criminal complaint.

The Iowa Insurance Division’s Fraud Bureau started an investigation in May, and Tarasi was arrested in September.

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