Anthony J Amaradio

Securities regulators are investigating whether an Orange County insurance agent--hired by Prudential Insurance despite a lengthy record of customer complaints, lawsuits and disciplinary investigations--may have continued to use deceitful sales tactics since joining the company, public records show. The agent, Anthony J. Amaradio, 41, was hired by Prudential in 1991 after he left the Equitable Assurance Society under a cloud.

Michigan regulators have moved to revoke the license of a leading Prudential Insurance salesman who divides his time between Newport Beach and Michigan and who was hired by Prudential despite a track record of problems in a prior job. The action comes just days after Prudential Insurance Chairman Robert Winters publicly defended the decision to hire Anthony J. Amaradio in 1991 despite a lengthy record of customer complaints, disciplinary action by regulators and pending investigations.

Michigan regulators have moved to revoke the license of a leading Prudential Insurance salesman who divides his time between Newport Beach and Michigan and who was hired by Prudential despite a track record of problems in a prior job. The action comes just days after Prudential Insurance Chairman Robert Winters publicly defended the decision to hire Anthony J. Amaradio in 1991 despite a lengthy record of customer complaints, disciplinary action by regulators and pending investigations.

Securities regulators are investigating whether an Orange County insurance agent--hired by Prudential Insurance despite a lengthy record of customer complaints, lawsuits and disciplinary investigations--may have continued to use deceitful sales tactics since joining the company, public records show. The agent, Anthony J. Amaradio, 41, was hired by Prudential in 1991 after he left the Equitable Assurance Society under a cloud.

Insurance Agent Denies Wrongdoing: Anthony J. Amaradio, a Prudential Insurance agent in Irvine, denied in an interview that he had engaged in misrepresentation while selling policies to customers for his previous employer, Equitable Assurance Society. Asked if he had told customers they were making investments instead of buying insurance, Amaradio said, "absolutely, 100% no." The Times reported Thursday that the National Assn. of Securities Dealers fined Equitable $1.

Anthony J. Amaradio, a highly successful Orange County life insurance salesman accused of defrauding customers, was fined $535,000 on Monday and permanently banned from the securities industry. The action by a disciplinary committee of the National Assn. of Securities Dealers stemmed from NASD accusations that the Irvine-based salesman deceived unsophisticated investors into believing they were buying investments similar to mutual funds instead of life insurance policies.

Securities regulators fined Equitable Assurance Society $1.5 million, accusing the nation's sixth-largest insurance company Wednesday of letting agents trick hundreds of customers--including many born-again Christians--into buying expensive life insurance policies by falsely offering them as retirement investments. Many of the allegations leveled by the National Assn. of Securities Dealers involved Anthony J. Amaradio, 41, a former Equitable agent in Michigan and Southern California.

Prudential Insurance Chairman Robert C. Winters said Wednesday that the company has no plans to divest itself of its Prudential Securities subsidiary, despite a relentless wave of unfavorable attention drawn to the brokerage by the investigations and lawsuits stemming from its problems involving limited partnerships.