The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has barred a Mutual of Omaha representative from the brokerage industry for creating fictitious health insurance policy applications.
Thomas Patrick Barton III, while acting as an agent for the parent insurance company of Mutual of Omaha, electronically signed the names of five individuals on five policy applications, without their permission, Finra said. He then submitted the fictitious applications to the insurance company.
Barton, Finra said, designated his own bank account as the destination for the automatic premium payments.
Barton accepted the sanction without admitting or denying Finra’s findings, Finra said. He could not be reached for comment.
Barton, who worked in the company's Pittsburgh office, first created three false applications in February and submitted them with the individuals’ names and forged signatures. The individuals did not authorized Barton to sign their names on the policies, nor did any of them discussed purchasing insurance through him, Finra said.
Barton’s actions were questioned when one of the individuals contacted the insurance company in early March and inquired about why she and her spouse had been issued policies. Finra said Barton claimed that the policies had been issued by mistake. He, however, remained mum about the third unauthorized application, Finra said.
Later that month, Finra said Barton repeated the misconduct. This time, he electronically forged two individuals' signatures on applications and then submitted them. And again, he designated one of his bank accounts for the automatic premium payments on each application.
Barton was fired from Mutual of Omaha in April for “submitting unauthorized insurance applications, falsifying information, and failing to follow e-signature procedures,” according to the U5 Form filed by Mutual of Omaha Investor Services.