Jacob Richard Bonzer, 28, formerly of Lake Forest, Calif. was arrested last August in Chicago by a U.S. Marshals Task Force on 96 felony counts including grand theft, forgery and denial of benefits. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven years in prison last Friday for selling fraudulent insurance polices in Orange County to fund a lavish lifestyle.

Between 2009 to 2013, Bonzer, collected more than $900,000 in commissions and premium payments for the fake polices, and created fake insurance companies to defraud customers, a statement from the Orange County District Attorney said.

Before being sentenced, Bonzer pleaded guilty to 49 counts of grand theft, one felony count of forging a California Department of Insurance Examination report, transacting insurance business without a certificate of authority, 45 felony counts of insurance fraud, with sentencing enhancements for aggravated white-collar crime totaling more than $500,000 and taking more than $200,000. He was ordered to pay $918,300 to his victims. Bonzer used the money to pay for fine dining, travel, wine club memberships and to rent luxury high-rise apartments.

Between 2009 to 2010, Bonzer worked at a Farmers Insurance Group office in Brea, before being fired after failing the company’s career program. The Department of Insurance received a complaint alleging Bonzer submitted 128 fraudulent homeowners insurance applications containing bogus information using nonexistent policyholders for real properties, causing valid policies to be issued for phantom homeowners in escrow. Bonzer allegedly received $46,000 in advanced commissions from the insurance company that expected to collect premiums when the properties closed escrow. Since the applicants were bogus, the insurer never received premium payments and Bonzer was eventually fired.

In 2011, he continued his criminal activities and created a fake company and, with another insurance agent to whom he lied, created 800 more homeowner polices that listed fake names. The fake company was called GW Mutual Risk Retention Group, LLC, which was registered in Florida. GW Mutual is not licensed to write insurance in California though Bonzer sold workers’ comp and commercial insurance policies through his agency, Bonzer Insurance Brokerage, located in Orange County.

Bonzer collected roughly $280,000 in premium from 58 California businesses that believed they were purchasing valid coverage.The other agent paid back his half of the $573,242 in commissions. When questioned by a customer about his ability to sell insurance in California, Bonzer provided him with a fake document from the state department of insurance.

Bonzer orchestrated these elaborate scams by using multiple post office boxes, virtual assistants, business entities, office spaces, email accounts, website domains and bank accounts.