Diane Lazar, also known as Diane Dowd

An insurance agent, charged with fraud for allegedly taking $100,000 from an elderly client and making her daughter the beneficiary of the client’s annuities, is working again in the insurance industry.

Diane Lazar, also known as Diane Dowd, formerly of Palos Heights, was a licensed insurance producer and authorized agent of various insurance companies. However, between 2008 and 2014, Lazar made money off the annuities and life insurance policy she sold to a North Riverside client in his 80s, according to federal prosecutors.

In some instances, prosecutors said, Lazar designated her daughter, who has a different last name than her, as the beneficiary of the annuities, falsely claiming that her daughter was the client’s grandchild or great-grandchild.

Lazar, wearing a black blouse and black pants, said in court Feb. 27 that she is working as an insurance agent for Aflac.

One of the conditions listed for the Cape Coral, Florida resident’s release from federal detention is to inform her current employer of the federal charges pending against her.

Lazar’s federal public defender, Amanda Penabad, argued that Lazar should not be required to tell Aflac about the charges against her.

“At this point, these are allegations,” Penabad said. “To have to inform her employer goes against the presumption of innocence.”

Penabad said that the most recent allegations against Lazar are from 2014, that there have been no other charges against her stemming from her actions since that time and that it was not appropriate to force her client to tell her current employer about the allegations.

“If she is saying she does not want to inform her employer, she’s not going to be released,” U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle Sr. said.

Norgle said that he felt that as Lazar’s job being in the same industry she was in when the alleged crimes occurred, the government’s request that she inform Aflac of the charges was warranted.

“I think it is smart in light of the allegations,” Norgle said.

The federal magistrate seemed surprised that Lazar was seeking the appointment of a public defender when the allegations against her include taking $100,000 for her client’s bank account when he died.

When going over her listed assets, Norgle twice asked her, “Is this true?”

Lazar said it was and that she owns no real estate, renting a home from her mother-in-law.

Lazar, 46, has been charged with two counts of wire fraud, one count of bank fraud and one count of making a false statement to a financial institution.

The bank fraud and false statement counts are each punishable by up to 30 years in federal prison, while each count of wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years. If convicted, the court must impose a “reasonable” sentence under federal statutes and the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.

If convicted, federal officials said they will seek $101,140 from Lazar.

She pleaded “not guilty” to all charges during her court appearance Feb. 27.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Corey Rubenstein also sought Lazar to submit to a psychiatric evaluation as a condition of her relief.

Norgle rejected the proposal, saying, “I don’t see a need for it,” noting that Lazar has been speaking to a religious counselor and is already being treated by a medical doctor.

“I am not going to require that as a condition for bond,” the judge said in rejecting the psychiatric evaluation request.

“What is so exceptional about this case?” Norgle questioned Rubenstein about the condition being required by the government for Lazar’s release on bond.

Norgle did require Lazar to surrender her passport, if she has one, and any firearms she has in her possession.

Lazar is next scheduled to be in court April 17.

Upon approval of the applications, the North Riverside client paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in premiums, including $494,000 to Mutual of Omaha, and Lazar received commissions from the companies, including $7,500 from the Mutual of Omaha sales, the indictment states.

Lazar than allegedly sold the man a Midland annuity, paid with $460,000 from Mutual of Omaha annuities. Federal investigators said Lazar got $9,400 as a commission for the Midland sale.

When seeking surrender of the Mutual of Omaha annuities, Lazar represented herself as the North Riverside senior and said the money was needed for a property purchase, investigators said. She also set up a post office box to control annuity and insurance mailings, the indictment states.

The senior allegedly paid $42,000 in premiums for a Sagicor annuity, which was paid through the surrender of a Mutual of Omaha annuity. The new annuity listed Lazar’s daughter as the beneficiary; and Lazar received a $1,000 commission for that sale, according to the indictment.

The North Riverside man would eventually buy a $400,000 Sagicor annuity funded through the surrender of the Midland annuity, according to investigators. They said Lazar made a $10,000 commission on the sale and Midland charged the man $34,000 in surrender fees.

Less than five months before he died, Lazar allegedly sold the man a $25,000 Transamerica life insurance policy that named her daughter as the beneficiary.

Upon the client’s death in 2014, Lazar attempted to fraudulently collect some of the client’s annuity and insurance proceeds, the indictment alleges. She also submitted a phony power of attorney form to the client’s bank to fraudulently withdraw the remaining $100,000 from his checking account, the indictment states.

The power of attorney form, federal agents said, was purportedly signed by the man in the presence of a notary public. However, Lazar had a notary authorize the document in the man’s absence by falsely stating that the man was Lazar’s grandfather and the document needed to be notarized urgently because her grandfather was in hospice care, investigators said.

She was also added as an authorized user of the man’s PNC bank account three weeks after the man’s death, investigators said.

They noted that Lazar went as far as going to Cook County probate court to have Diane Dowd, her maiden name, be the guardian of her daughter’s estate, who has a different last name than Lazar.