Insurance Council of B.C. finds against broker in money “borrowing” scheme

The Insurance Council of B.C. has ordered that a (now-unlicensed) general insurance broker cannot hold a license until two years after he pays restitution for money he originally said he “borrowed” from clients.The former licensee, Mark Edward Gansekoele, later admitted the money he borrowed “amounted to theft of funds properly belonging to an insurance company,” the council found in its decision, posted online on Apr. 13, 2011.The council’s investigation found a client of the insurance company, Coast Capital, said he had paid for part of a monthly premium payment in cash. Gansekoele admitted he had taken the client’s cash, but argued that the client was still covered because the premium payments were coming out of Gansekoele’s own Coast Capital bank account. Gansekoele had set the client up to have monthly premium payments made using Coast Capital’s internal monthly payment system, PayVantage. The system allows qualified clients to defer larger lump sum payments into smaller monthly payments.A senior representative of Coast Capital started to look into this arrangement on Feb. 26, 2010, when asked to confirm if the client’s coverage was in force. He found PayVantage had been set up in such a way that the funds paying the client’s premiums were in fact drawing the premium money from a bank account owned by Gansekoele.”The former licensee thought of it as borrowing money as opposed to stealing,” the council found in its decision.The council found 23 clients had been set up in this same fashion, with their premium payments coming from Gansekoele’s own Coast Capital bank account. Council noted the insurer’s system ensured none of the clients were at risk of being uninsured as a consequence of Gansekoele’s actions. Council noted that since being unlicensed for a year, Gansekoele had not made any restitution payments, and so he was not entitled to hold a license until two years after such payments had been made.