PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — A former insurance broker was sentenced in court Tuesday after pleading guilty to fabricating insurance applications and payment forms to collect commission payments. Bruno Francis Ragusa, 53, of North Attleboro collected nearly $137,000 in sales commissions by submitting fabricated insurance applications for end-of-life insurance policies in clients’ names without their knowledge, and used those clients’ personal and banking information to pay for those policies, according to the Department of Justice. Ragusa pleaded guilty on June 20 to a charge of wire fraud, and admitted he forged clients’ electronic signatures on more than 50 insurance policy applications. The defendant also admitted he had all policy correspondence sent directly to him and not to clients, used clients’ bank account information for the payments be directly wired from their bank accounts without their knowledge, and failed to advice his clients that policies had been purchased in their names. In total, Ragusa collected $136,956.56 in insurance sales commissions. He has been ordered by the court to return $70,379.47 to the insurance company, which represents the balance of commissions paid that have yet to be received. Ragusa was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison, followed by two years of federal supervised release. Categories: News, Rhode Island