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Sex Scandals, Big Spending And Shenanigans Found At Citizens Property Insurance

Citizens Property Insurance Corporation

An internal investigation of Citizens Property Insurance in Florida, a government-run home insurer of last resort and the state's largest insurer, found that the company has a sordid history of sex scandals, cover-ups and big spending. 

Recently, Citizens has gotten a lot of scrutiny because it has been consistently hiking up premiums or removing coverage from large numbers of people in the state.

However, a recent investigation found that the problems with the 10 year-old not-for-profit insurer starts with the people running the show over there in Tallahassee.

According to The Miami Herald, "The corporate cauldron of misconduct boiled over this year when internal investigators tracked the trail of scandal up to the highest levels of the company, drafting a scathing 73-page report that highlights a laundry list of improprieties."

Among the sort of problems listed in the report are these little gems pointed out by Toluse Olorunnipa of the Herald:

  • Susanne Murphy, Chief Administration Officer at Citizens, was a legal advisor to the company even though she wasn't a licensed attorney in Florida. When other top officials at Citizens found out about this, they changed some paperwork that could have been a red flag and allowed her to resign while giving her a salary and benefits for a couple months.
  • The company also gave more than $80,000 in severance to an executive who was having an affair with another lower-ranked employee. The company also helped give him unemployment benefits when he resigned following the sex scandal. 
  • According to the Herald, the insurance company also "showed favoritism to certain employees." For example, one employee was fired for using company property to promote a line of sex toys, while another employee received little-to-no repercussions for taking off her bra while she was drunk on a company retreat  and using company time to promote a side-business.

Several investigations into Citizens have been botched or thrown out in the past couple of years. However, Gov. Rick Scott has ordered investigations into how this has all happened and who has let all this take place through the years.

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