A 30-year-old Minneapolis woman has been accused of using her job as a temporary employee of Allianz Life Insurance Co. to steal identities of five people in a scheme that resulted in losses of more than $50,000.
Monique Fletcher, who worked for Allianz from October 2008 until April 2009, is scheduled to appear in Hennepin County Court Thursday on a felony count of identity theft.
It's the second time this month that an Allianz employee has been accused of breaching secure information at the company. Kimberly Swenson, 38, of Shoreview recently pleaded guilty in federal court in Minneapolis to embezzling about $400,000 from her employer.
An Allianz internal investigator was part of the Fletcher probe, which began early last year when police in Plano, Texas, began looking into a report from a woman who said her identity had been stolen. The woman, who worked for Allianz in Plano, told police that numerous credit card and bank accounts had been fraudulently set up in her name.
When confronted with the information, Fletcher admitted improperly getting the woman's name, birthdate and Social Security number while working for Allianz and using it to get a couple of "payday" loans. Fletcher also said others may have gotten the woman's personal information through her.
An investigation by Allianz showed that while working for Allianz Fletcher had fraudulently obtained personal information of four other people.
Allianz spokeswoman Laurie Bauer said the cases are dissimilar and that their timing is a coincidence. She said neither reflects any overall problems with Allianz's security measures, adding, "Data privacy is something we take very seriously."
Susan Feyder • 612-673-1723
