Grand Forks insurance agent Lisa Sue Johnston, 38, is facing a pair of felony charges and has lost her insurance license amidst allegations of theft and forgery.
Court documents allege Johnston stole $27,536.67 from clients while working at the Brian Larson American Family Insurance Agency.
Johnston pleaded guilty to theft of property, a Class B felony, in Grand Forks County District Court Oct. 27. She has since been charged with forgery, a Class C felony.
N.D. Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm said Friday that her license had been revoked. She will not be able to sell, solicit or negotiate insurance in the state.
"My first priority is to safeguard the interests of North Dakota's insurance customers," Hamm said in a release. "Revoking Ms. Johnston's license ensures that she will no longer be doing business in this state."
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A court affidavit said Johnston called investigators and confessed to stealing between $20,000 and $22,000. She made only the minimum payments to clients' accounts and kept the rest of their money for herself.
A company review showed more money was missing. Johnston was fired on March 23.
With the forgery charge, she is accused of illicitly writing checks in January and February from the account of Bud Adams, whom she was engaged to at the time, according to an affidavit. The seven checks totaled $10,239.
Five of the checks were written to the Brian Larson American Family Insurance Agency. The other two were written to the U.S. Treasury and IRS.
Johnston told investigators that the two checks to the U.S. government were for an error she made preparing the business' taxes and she felt responsible so she paid the tax liability.
She is scheduled for pretrial conference on the forgery charge and sentencing on the theft of property charge on Dec. 14.
