The Bank of Prescott and Citizens Bank of Batesville filed civil suits Monday alleging frauds totaling $2.4 million by former insurance agent Berry Bishop and his agency, Alliance Insurance Group of Arkadelphia Inc.
Bishop and Alliance were stripped of their insurance licenses in an emergency action last week by state Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr. In that order, he said Bishop had diverted to personal use some $1.7 million in premium received from clients and defrauded Bank of Prescott with more than $1 million in phony premium finance loans.
In a related development, the Arkansas Insurance Department said Tuesday that it had granted an agency license to a new agency established by Bishop’s son-in-law and former employee, Nathan Price. The new agency is called Price & Co.
The lawsuit filed Monday in Clark County Circuit Court by Pine Bluff attorney Paul T. Bennett reveals that Bank of Prescott’s premium finance business with Bishop was worth much more than the order had revealed. Twenty-one different loans detailed in the 25-page complaint total $2.14 million.
Citizens Bank alleges a different kind of fraud. It loaned Bishop $50,000 in February 2015 and another $200,000 in January 2016. Both loans were secured by the stock in a company that owned Bishop’s insurance offices in Arkadelphia and Prescott.
Although Bishop claimed there were no liabilities against M&B, its only assets were already mortgaged to Bank of the Ozarks, which is named as a defendant in Citizens Bank’s lawsuit only so the judge can determine the priority of claims on the real estate.
Alliance Insurance also operated an office in Hot Springs. One of its employees, Bart Newman, was granted a license last week for a new agency there, Newman Insurance Agency. It employs two other agents who worked in the Hot Springs office, Ryan Browning and Ronnie Ralph.