Heath Ritenour Insurance Office of America Civil Racketeering "RICO" & Multiple Fraud Schemes

Heath Ritenour, John Ritenour and Insurance Office of America Defending Lawsuit in Federal Court with Claim for Civil Racketeering (“RICO”) Alleging “Multiple Schemes” Including Taking 5% Out of Owed Insurance Commissions from IOA Agent.

After being removed to United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Case Number: 6:23-cv-00746-RBD-RMN by Defendants Heath Ritenour (“Heath”), Valli Ritenour (“Valli”), John Ritenour (“John”), George Anthony Tatum (“Tatum”), Insurance Office of America (“IOA”), the pending claim for Civil RICO includes a scheme to reduce an alleged IOA Agent’s owed commissions by 5% with an undisclosed “Risk Service Fee a/ka/ Risk Score Fee.”

More specifically, the Complaint alleges in part: “While [Plaintiff] was being recruited to become an IOA Insurance Agent, he was promised [IOA’s] Signature Universal Offer” which is alleged in the filed pleading to be “offering the highest commissions to its insurance agents in the industry for new and residual business [60%]…allowing IOA Insurance Agents to keep their own book of business and allowing all IOA Insurance Agents to freely leave IOA at any time and retain ownership of all their insurance accounts.”

The Operative Complaint now pending in Federal Court alleges, in part, that Plaintiff agreed to become an IOA agent under the terms of IOA’s Signature Offer, however, in one of the alleged Federal Civil RICO Schemes, Plaintiff was defrauded based upon a “[Failure] to disclose that IOA would take 5% out of owed commissions for a Risk Service Fee.”? The Complaint further alleges that “[t]his scheme is and was perpetrated through mail and wire fraud upon Plaintiff and other IOA Agents.”

If you have any information relative to the allegations regarding IOA’s Risk Service Fee a/k/a Risk Score Fee, ?or as to the character and reputations of John Ritenour, Heath Ritenour or Insurance Office of America, please contact at info@farrowlawfirm.com.? All communications will remain confidential unless otherwise permitted by federal or state law, rules of procedure, evidence or Court order.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA, in addition to ongoing litigation against Heath Ritenour and Insurance Office of America in Federal Court seeking damages for, among other claims, allegations of Non-Criminal Civil Remedies under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), on July 10, 2023, in a separate lawsuit pending in State Court in Broward County, Plaintiff Louis Spagnuolo (“Spagnuolo”) filed an Amended Complaint against Heath Ritenour (“Heath”) and Insurance Office of America (“IOA”) in Broward Circuit Court alleging claims of Defamation Per Se and Abuse of Process.? The Lawsuit’s Court Docket filed pleadings and motions can be located at www.browardclerk.org searching assigned Case Number CACE23000555 (“Broward Lawsuit”).

The Broward Lawsuit’s Amended Complaint alleges in part that Heath and IOA filed a “frivolous lawsuit” in Seminole County Circuit Court against Spagnuolo and thereafter “when on to use the publicly filed lawsuit to engage in out of court private communications with third parties in which they made additional false statements to discredit Spagnuolo.”? While Spagnuolo has filed a Motion to Dismiss the Seminole Lawsuit pursuant Florida Statute § 786.295 Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation Prohibited (“Florida’s Anti-SLAPP Law”) arguing in part that that lawsuit was brought “in clear retaliation for Spagnuolo filing a lawsuit against IOA the year before”, that motion remains pending.

The text of Florida’s Anti-SLAPP lawsuit can be found at: https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0768/Sections/0768.295.html In the Broward Lawsuit, the July 2023 Amended Complaint alleges further that: “Defendants IOA and Heath further mis-used the [“Seminole Lawsuit”] … and orders from [that case] to further defame Spagnuolo by implying inferences from that legal proceeding to enforce the defamatory and harmful statements made about Spagnuolo.”

At Paragraph 84 of the Broward Lawsuit’s Amended Complaint, it is alleged that: “statements were published orally and/or in writing to various individuals including but not limited to Daniel Mahalic, Pat Kurz, Max McKay, Rick Neyman, Dan Ricker, Nathan Brainard, Jeremy Burr, Charlie Boornazian, Danny Anderson, Jeff Lagos, Rob Motley, John Tenuto, Chris Labrecque, Bruce Eades, Michael Coleman, John Thurman, Bill Rush, Andrew Lockhart, Don Poag, Lee Hanna, Nyea Sturman, Charlie Freeman, Theresa Fenwick, and Davis Anderson.”