Last Friday, California Casualty Management insurance adjustor Paul Daniel Poizner plead not guilty to charges of insurance fraud after being arrested on in Los Angeles County on Thursday.
Poizner, a second cousin of state Insurance Commissioner and Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner, is alleged to have awarded claims in excess of the repair bills and collected the difference.
Paul Poizner is being held on $294,000 bail -- slightly less than the $300,000 he is accused of pocketing from the scheme according to the LA County District Attorney's office.
CCM brought the case to the attention of the offices of the prosecutor and the Insurance Commissioner in March. A spokesman for the Insurance Commissioner said that Steve Poizner immediately recused himself from the investigation.
That said, insurance fraud is certainly one way to be less than a burden on the state's welfare system that has come under fire by the gubernatorial candidate.
Jackson West would hate to be held against his own second cousins.
