Man sued by Tampa church over insurance investment scheme is charged with fraud

TAMPA — A South Florida man is in a Hillsborough County jail, accused of posing as an insurance agent in a case of fraud involving two elderly residents and premiums of nearly $500,000 that were never paid to an insurance company.

An arrest affidavit filed by the state Division of Insurance Fraud says that between December 2007 and September 2008, Richard M. Incandela, 57, of Wellington systematically defrauded two elderly residents of $489,426 in fraudulent insurance premiums.

Then on Monday, the affidavit says, Incandela "met with an undercover police detective and solicited a payment of $528,000 to purchase life insurance policies not in existence.''

Incandela was jailed on charges of selling insurance without a license and organized fraud in excess of $50,000. He was being held with bail set at $17,000.

Last year, Incandela was sued by St. John Greek Orthodox Church, which alleged that he sold the church on what appeared to be an investment strategy involving life insurance policies taken out on elderly parishioners, which would then be sold to investors who would pay the premiums.

A St. Petersburg Times story about the suit notes that Incandela was convicted in 1992 on a felony charge of stealing more than $100,000. He served nearly two years of a six-year sentence in an Illinois prison before being paroled. And shortly afterward, he was convicted in Palm Beach County on two felony counts of forgery and one felony count of grand theft.

Asked about the church's suit and other complaints by nonprofit and religious organizations that had done business with him, Incandela said that he had resolved the other complaints and that his company had raised millions for charities before the market crashed.