Photo: Jose Villa
LOS ANGELES – 62-year-old former OC public adjuster Jose Villa pleaded no contest to eight felony counts of diverting construction funds. He was immediately sentenced to ten years in prison and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine as well as $1,213,277.23 in restitution.
Villa was owner of Statewide Claims Advisors, Inc, based in Irvine. He worked with the owners of a commercial building as well as the owner of a residential building, which both had suffered damage in a fire in 2013.
Deputy District attorney Jeffrey Stodel said, “The prosecutor said Villa deposited the victims’ insurance reimbursement checks into his business checking account, ostensibly so he could handle demolition and construction at the victims’ properties in the months following the fires. However, he kept most of the insurance money instead of using it for the victims’ benefit.”
Villa is already serving another seven year term for insurance fraud, which will run concurrently to his new sentence.
Understandably, Villa’s adjuster license has been revoked and he is “permanently barred from applying for or holding any license it issues.”
