Q: What happened to the people who were in a right-wing Christian group who were accused years ago of illegally selling car insurance? - Anonymous, Sacramento
A: Eight Northern Californians were indicted in 2005 on charges of money laundering and selling illegal car insurance after the FBI and the state's insurance regulator investigated the operations of a self-styled right-wing Christian organization, The Bee reported.
According to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Sacramento, the government asked for the charges against Sherwood Rodrigues, Blanche Hassall, David Polnoff and Louise Renfro to be dismissed in exchange for their testimony.
Here is the disposition of the other cases, according to the spokeswoman:
Amy Polnoff pleaded guilty on May 7, 2009 and was sentenced to 36 months in prison. She is in the Dublin federal prison.
Kurt Lakota pleaded guilty on May 14, 2009 and was sentenced to 21 months in prison. He is in federal custody.
James Sydney Kalfsbeek and Donna Rowe were found guilty on June 10, 2009 and are scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 17. They are not in custody.
According to Bee reports of the indictment, the suspects, who operated Puget's Sound Agricultural Society Ltd., conspired to tell 2,500 members, state regulators and accident victims that the group offered an alternative to automobile liability insurance that complied with laws everywhere.
The society, which associated with an entity called the Jesus Christ Administrators, denied it sold car insurance, insisting that what it offered was "a financial responsibility program" for moral Christians.
The criminal indictments, filed June 23, 2005 in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, followed a probe that began in 2000 when insurance regulators in 11 states and two Canadian provinces started investigating the firm. The society was incorporated in British Columbia but operated primarily in the United States, including offices in Carmichael, Georgetown, Garden Valley, Winters, Sunnyvale and Arbuckle.
Besides charges of money laundering and conspiracy, the 42-count grand jury indictment alleged mail fraud, wire fraud, engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property, and aiding and abetting.
The indictment states that the society's managers, who collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from members, failed to warn consumers they might be arrested for failure to have valid proof of insurance if they were ever involved in a car accident.
Between 1994 and its closure in 2002, the FBI and the California Department of Insurance alleged, the society advertised its products on the radio and in magazines and regional newspapers the grand jury described as "predominantly anti-government."
It offered clients insurance cards that looked like those issued by licensed insurers for glove compartments, authorities said.
Members paid $500 for a lifetime membership in the society, plus an extra $250 for each vehicle owned, the grand jury stated, and the society generally paid members' smaller claims but denied large ones.
Before the group was shut down in 2002, it was slapped with 11 cease-and-desist orders and four warnings by several states, including Minnesota and Indiana.
The society ignored the orders and operated illegally until it was closed, authorities said.
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