The General Insurance Council of the Alberta Insurance Council is fining Safder Abbas $15,000 – the maximum allowable penalty in the case – after Abbas admitted to forging at least one claim experience letter before submitting it to an insurer.
Licensed since November 2003, Abbas was a level 2 agent periodically from May 2006 until September 2023 when he was terminated with cause.
The initial fraudulent letter was discovered by an attentive underwriter who recognized his own signature on a claims experience document from the insurer which they hadn’t worked for in nine months.
In various conversations, Abbas reportedly admitted to the agency’s senior vice president of sales that he’d created forged documents in the past, but hadn’t in the instance in question. Abbas later reported to the council that his work environment was hostile and abusive and that the same senior vice president would frequently belittle him, calling his book of business “garbage” and generally making him feel unwelcome. At the same time, he reported being under a lot of pressure from the client, who was also abusive, prior to making the decision to alter at least one claims experience letter.
Throughout the investigation, Abbas maintained that he did not create the other letters, which were confirmed to be forgeries by technical services experts. (Templates for the letters had been discontinued for years and employees named were no longer with the companies in question.)
“In council’s opinion, the evidence shows the agent submitted three forged claim experience letters to an insurer,” the council’s decision states. Broken down, the $15,000 penalty includes a $5,000 penalty for each forgery – the maximum allowable penalty in the case.
