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Fraud, Facts & Life Insurance with AgentVerified

Betsy Barr and Javaughn Spencer, AgentVerified

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Welcome to Fraud, Facts & Life Insurance with AgentVerified, where jaw-dropping stories of life insurance gone wrong meet real talk about how to protect yourself. Hosted by Betsy Barr and Javaughn Spencer of AgentVerified, each episode unpacks outrageous stories of fraud, deception, and financial foul play. We’ll also shine a light on verified, trustworthy agents who are doing it right - not every story has to end in scandal. With sharp commentary and behind-the-scenes insights, you'll walk ...
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Business done right - Purpose, Values AND Profit. In the Karmic Capitalist conversations, we talk to CEOs and founders of organisations with purpose and values at their heart. We dive into their journeys, and into the nitty gritty of what it takes to build organisations that make good and make money. Some are starting the journey, others are a long way down it, and still others still are changing direction. But all are business leaders who believe that a successful businesses is defined by p ...
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A Polk County insurance agent admitted to faking policy documents—pocketing just $10,000 over six years. The outcome? A suspended prison sentence and an order to pay restitution. This week on Fraud, Facts & Life Insurance, Betsy and Javaughn expose why this “not even good at fraud” scheme serves as a cautionary tale for families and agents alike. Y…
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A Florida woman secretly obtains 33 life insurance policies on 29 different people, making herself the beneficiary. In Iowa, an agent alters dates on documents to transfer funds without permission. This week on Fraud, Facts & Life Insurance, Betsy and Javaughn expose Joyce Small’s multi-million-dollar policy scheme and Christopher Childers’ forged …
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A family in Ohio takes insurance fraud to shocking levels by faking medical exams. In Florida, an agent allegedly fabricates 746 Aflac policies to rake in over $120K in commissions. This week on Fraud, Facts & Life Insurance, Betsy and Javaughn break down the Stevenson and Williams cases: how the scams unfolded, the red flags that could’ve stopped …
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An agent scams seniors out of $1.5 million, then spends it on jewelry, real estate, and a Maserati. Another sets up fraudulent premium finance deals, hides policy info, and leaves one client holding the bag for over $1 million after Hurricane Ian. This week on Fraud, Facts & Life Insurance, Betsy and Javaughn talk about the cases of Shawn Heffernan…
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One agent steals $100K by faking investments and spends it on casino trips. Another writes $5 million in bogus policies using nine stolen identities. This week on Fraud, Facts & Life Insurance, Betsy and Javaughn go over the stories of Gautam Arora and James Jones, two former agents who turned trust into fraud. They also share wins from their own a…
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One agent steals two identities to collect $100K in unearned commissions, then scams the government out of another $40K in PPP loans. Another opens a full-blown fake insurance agency and collects $38K in loans using stolen identities. This week on Fraud, Facts & Life Insurance, Betsy and Javaughn examine the cases of Seneca Birchmore and Francis Ok…
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Two agents collect $300K in unearned commissions before they’re even licensed. A broker steals $180K in premiums, mostly from elderly clients, and keeps going even after her license is revoked. In this episode of Fraud, Facts & Life Insurance, Betsy and Javaughn examine the schemes of Kakande and Lutale’s fake applications and Karen Dondanville’s r…
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A trusted agent steals millions. A family fakes a medical exam to cash in on a sick relative’s life insurance. In this episode of Fraud, Facts & Life Insurance, Betsy and Javaughn dive into a $2M fraud by a trusted advisor and a $2.9M scam involving a fake medical exam and a very unhealthy truth. Listen in as they expose how these scams got past th…
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An agent creates fake clients. Another forges documents to steal millions. In this episode of Fraud, Facts & Life Insurance, Betsy and Javaughn break down two alarming cases: one involving 13 fake applications tied to Globe Life, and another where over $10,000 was stolen through fake policy documents. Listen in as they explore how these frauds slip…
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Fake death certificates. Luxury cars. Entire families running life insurance scams as their side hustle. In this episode of Fraud, Facts & Life Insurance, hosts Betsy Barr and Javaughn Spencer uncover the details behind a $26 million fraud case involving 23 people, and another where an agent used stolen identities to write fake policies and collect…
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Some agents fake documents. Others fake entire identities. And sometimes, they just steal straight from grandma’s account. In this episode of Fraud, Facts & Life Insurance, hosts Betsy Barr and Javaughn Spencer address two outrageous fraud cases: one involving stolen agent identities and fake commissions, and another where an agent manipulated elde…
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When life insurance goes sideways, it’s rarely an accident. Welcome to Fraud, Facts & Life Insurance with AgentVerified, the podcast that shares shocking stories of life insurance gone wrong, as well as what you need to know to avoid getting burned. Expect sharp commentary, a few gasps, and advice that could save your future self from financial dis…
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The rise in demand for local working spaces is very visible. It's unfortunate that the category was tarnished by WeWork founder Adam Neumann, whose fortune is dwarfed only by the lack of ethics displayed in building it. But it doesn't need to be so. An alternative would be to start to consciously build workspaces not only based on a pound per squar…
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A company that makes lawyers wealthier? On the Karmic Capitalist podcast? Have I sold out? Stay with me. This law company, Aria Grace, intentionally does the following: It offers a legal service on a par with the large law partnerships for less cost to its clients It pays the lawyers nearly treble the portion of the fees than in traditional firms I…
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"Move Fast and Break Things" is a terrible way to be anti-racist. This Karmic Capitalist podcast episode is FULL of gold. I talk to Javaughn and Jamey, VP of culture and CEO respectively of Agilian.com, a technology consulting firm that has absolutely nailed anti-racism and diversity to its mast. When, to his enormous shame, Jamey was shown data th…
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Helping big companies be good, and good companies get bigger. Not quite EdenLab's motto, but not far off it. In this episode of the Karmic Capitalist podcast, I talk to Leo Rayman, founder and CEO, about his journey from agencyland to EdenLab - accelerating positive and sustainable ideas and the people who come up with them. Leo's premise, and the …
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A founder who doesn’t see himself as a salesman, targeting purpose-led companies that don't identify that way, to tackle a problem that people don't think exist. Recipe for success... And exactly what Tom Greenwood did with Wholegrain Digital, the company he founded and which, in sustainability stakes, was a way ahead of the curve. Tom's concern fo…
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Very few businesses have the level or resonance and commitment from founders more than those whose origins came from personal tragedy. MyBabble was born after founder Faisal Shaikh's father sadly left home and didn't return. It transpired later that unknown to anyone, his dad had been dealing with loneliness. Faisal is a trained and practising psyc…
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"How can we collectively increase the quantity and quality of giving to nonprofits, to charities, so that they can raise more awareness, raise more funds, deliver more impact in their communities?" If there's a question that defines Lightful's work, I think Vinay shares it in this. My guest on the Karmic Capitalist podcast this week is Vinay Nair, …
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From the high-stakes financial environment of the now defunct Lehman Brothers ("buy-and-sell in its most aggressive manner") to putting on an exhibition of some of the most ethical and long-term thinking brands. That’s the varied journey which my guest, Hussein Allawi, has been on. He took plenty of lessons from those early days, days which he foun…
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"If going to a TGO gym can help unlock your potential not only for your life, but for your community, for your planet, that's the end game." Georgie Delaney MBE isn't short on a big vision. But critically - she's also not short on taking action. It was wonderful to talk to her about setting up and growing The Great Outdoor Gym Company (TGO). From a…
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So you're running an ethical agency. A criminal organisation posing as a listed company - let's call them Belgian Australian Tobacco - approaches you. "We fund an 'anti-smoking education programme' along with some of our other friends. But the challenge is that it's not as easy to find us on the web as it is lung cancer charities. We need your help…
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This episode of the Karmic Capitalist tells the story of a company that stayed true to its mission while undergoing a substantial pivot, and a founder who left his own comfortable path in pursuit of his passion. For sanitation! Thomas Fudge was so incensed by our misuse and abuse of water that left his job in product design and marketing and went b…
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From Chris Froome to wellness in your office. That's the journey that Phill Bell and Paul Smith undertook to co-founding ART Health, a company that helps employees and employers to improve workplace wellbeing using evidence-based techniques. It was fascinating to have Phill join me on this edition of the Karmic Capitalist podcast to share the story…
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There’s a moral case for your company to give equal opportunities for your team regardless of gender (or background, or sexual orientation, or ethnicity, etc). And there’s a business-performance one in terms of the improved decision-making that results from cognitive diversity. But although we are without a doubt making progress, it can feel slow. …
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Giving to charity is one of the easiest ways to do good. But have you ever wondered what impact your donation actually has? Enter my guest on the Karmic Capitalist podcast, Rachael Murray, founder of a company appropriately called Making Impact Matter (MiM). Making Impact Matter helps charities figure out how to measure impact. But doing the work h…
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I remember in the early 90s being told to staple my photograph to any CVs I sent out applying for work. I'm no George Clooney, so I wondered why. I later found out it was so that people who only had my name to go on would see that I wasn't Pakistani! So offensive at so many levels. If I were Pakistani, why would that be a problem? What if I were a …
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When it comes to sustainability and human rights, Fashion has earned a terrible reputation. And mostly for very good reason. But there are some shining examples who are showing what good can look like in the industry. One of these is pre-owned luxury fashion retailer Sign of the times. The original Chelsea shop was founded to media buzz in the 1970…
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You’ve just moved from one end of the planet to the other. You’re pregnant. And you want to be working. What do you do? It’s a sad indictment on how the workplace still treats pregnancy that for my guest on this #KarmicCapitalist podcast episode, starting a company seemed a more plausible route than finding employment. But start a company while pre…
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"Create wealth like a Capitalist, distribute it like a Marxist." Here's what that looks like... Simon Biltcliffe believes that Capitalism is a great way to create wealth, but is terrible at distributing it. And Marxism can't create wealth for toffee, but has great principles for distributing it. Adjust for externalities, and there you have the prin…
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We have a bit of an employment paradox in the UK. As Matt Powell, the founder and CEO of Breaking Barriers, puts it "We have a government that is anti-immigration, and an economy that needs immigration to function at its capacity." That's the gap, the gap between refugees that have made it to the UK and the unfilled jobs in the UK, that Breaking Ba…
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What do you do if the prevailing business model is very clearly saying one thing, yet your values and what the world needs are in diametric opposition to this? That's the dilemma that faced my Karmic Capitalist guest on this week's podcast, Seán Wood CEO of Positive News. "Bad news sells". We hear this mantra because it's commercially true. But as …
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Like probably most people who start a business, Derek Moore founded Coffee and TV because he believed that there might be a better way to do things than how it was being done in the industry. Key for him was that there had to be a better model than pushing people to work harder for longer and for less. So Coffee and TV took an approach of doing bus…
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Karl Farrow was awarded a medal by the Mexican authorities for his role as a volunteer overseeing the safe destruction of buildings in the immediate aftermath of the Mexico City earthquake of 2017. What's that got to do with the company he founded and runs? Plenty, I think. I dive into this episode in his life, one that gave him more fulfilment tha…
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This episode of the Karmic Capitalist podcast is a real testament to the role of innovation in cutting our environmental footprint while creating a more profitable and attractive solution. The film production industry has a shocking track record in terms of its environmental impact. In order to create a top end 30 second advert, vast sets are produ…
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For business to be better, we (i.e. humans) need to be better. The way most companies have been doing business in the last few decades has been having a glaringly detrimental impact on society and the environment. If we're to pull it back, we need to do it quickly. Tom Rippin is a systems thinker. In his view, the most effective place to start is w…
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A fundamental principle if you want to do purpose well in your company is to look after your profit. Note that "look after" is not the same as "maximise". Ruth Hartnoll, co-founder and CEO of Matchstick Creative, has seen what that looks like up close! In this episode of the Karmic Capitalist podcast, she tells the (nearly) 5 year story of Matchsti…
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I have two firsts in this Karmic Capitalist episode. First, Harriet is the first CBE to deign to accept my humble invitation to be a guest on our podcast! Second, she is also the first guest who leads a charity to guest on this show. Why a charity on he Karmic Capitalist? What has that got to do with businesses? Simple. The challenges we're facing …
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How challenging has it been to get your company going? I think getting a new product to market has to be one of the more challenging businesses to get going. But what if... Your product is a new formulation and needs independent scientific validation for your customers to buy it? Or you need to experiment to find out how to manufacture it at all as…
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Marketing has been responsible for sooo many of the ills we're suffering in today's world. Overconsumption is the biggie. Encapsulated in the perceptive statement that "we buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like". Personally, I think in many ways, marketing just amplifies what already exists in the human co…
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Trust - much aspired to within companies - starts at the top. The more you trust your team, the more of a trusting culture you will build. Henry Stewart, CEO of Happy Ltd, took that to a place very few would be willing to go. At pay review time for the company, he asked his team to decide what he should get. It's a logical conclusion if the whole e…
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Would you sack your biggest client if they were making your team unhappy? Create a BIG hole in your revenue and profit? Actually put some of your team at risk due to the financial hit? "We want our team to be happy". Pretty much every company says this at some level. And in the inimitable words of Greta Thurnberg, "blah blah blah". It usually is as…
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Rubbish data gets such a bad rap. The reality is that it can be an essential part of how we get better at recycling. That's the thrust behind Tekn Trash, founded by Al Costa who is my guest on this episode of the Karmic Capitalist podcast (find it on most podcast players). Tekn Trash tracks "point of disposal" data - yes, rubbish data - which start…
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Every so often, your company may donate to charity. And that's fantastic. But what if you committed to give 3% of your sales revenue come what may? Including if you were making a loss? Brave? Foolhardy? Or simply committed to do good? It might even make you think about your business differently. In this episode of the Karmic Capitalist, I speak to …
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Pleasure, people and planet. Tagline for a new line of eco-friendly 18-30 holidays? Not exactly. Pleasure, people and planet make up the driving mission behind Superfoodio, the wife-and-husband founded ethical plant-based treats company. And in this fun episode of the Karmic Capitalist, I talk to Jag and Nirali about their journey from South Americ…
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You know you need to contribute to a more sustainable planet. But your business is no giant, and you don't have Unilever's budget to play with. Is your climate contribution going to stop at eliminating plastic straws from your kitchen? Your answer may be in Sustainability As A Service. What's an SME to do on helping the environment? Well, if Bernar…
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"We've become addicted to convenience, and it's killing us". So how do you respond? Well if you're Katie Hill and Jarvis Smith, you launch a lifestyle site selling things. EH? EXCEPT - you make sure what you're selling is ethically produced and sustainable, and that your suppliers work with and not against nature. Because the reality is that we *do…
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In a world where we (rightly) look for companies whose business it is to help us solve the climate and social crises we face, do you have a role if your company purpose isn't about these things? In this latest episode of the Karmic Capitalist podcast, I speak to David Ellis, Managing Director at Station 10, about the role of purpose and values in h…
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"If there was a moment that said something was wrong in this world to me..." With that opening, my ears perked up. Villagers forced off an island ("there may have been guns involved" !?!!?) to make way for a power station designed to last only for 7 years. I guess if you hear that violence and environmental damage are involved in a project you've b…
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