In connection with an ongoing insurance fraud case in Baltimore County, Michael C. Okolo, 68, of Parkville, MD, has been charged for the fourth time, this time with obstruction of justice and fabricating evidence. Okolo has previously been charged with theft, fraud, and acting as an unlicensed insurance agent.
According to the news release issued on Friday, July 25, Attorney General Anthony G. Brown declared today that Michael C. Okolo, 68, of Parkville, Maryland, had been charged with obstruction of justice and forging physical evidence in a criminal information filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County. Since September 2024, Okolo has faced criminal charges four times.
Okolo was charged with felony theft and insurance fraud in an indictment returned by the Baltimore County grand jury in September 2024. In that instance, Okolo is accused of receiving two partially filled checks for $36,500 from a client in 2016 to cover the cost of an annuity contract and a life insurance policy. Okolo made the checks payable to his firm, placed them in his business account, and used the funds for both personal and business needs rather than sending the money to the insurance company.
According to the new accusations, Okolo allegedly created a letter of instruction on February 20, 2016, allegedly written and signed by the customer, instructing Okolo to deposit the checks into Okolo’s bank account while searching for the greatest annuity and insurance for the client. In order for the letter to be admitted into evidence at Okolo’s impending trial, Okolo gave it to his lawyer, who on May 1 shared it with the State.
The criminal information claims that the letter of instruction was a fake. The letter was not written, approved, or signed by the client. Okolo copied and pasted the signature from a real letter that the client had sent to Okolo in April 2017, almost a year after the date on the letter of instruction, onto the letter of instruction without permission. Furthermore, Okolo disputed in a letter to the Maryland Insurance Administration in May 2017 that any written record of the client’s purported directive to deposit the cheques into Okolo’s accounts existed.
Two more cases are still waiting for Okolo. In one, Okolo is accused of continuing to solicit and sell insurance products after his license was suspended by the Maryland Insurance Administration, leading to many charges of working as an unlicensed insurance agent. Okolo is accused of stealing property worth at least $100,000 in the other case after cashing a check that a client had given him for a real estate investment and using the money for personal and professional purposes that had nothing to do with real estate.
All four cases are being prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Criminal Division’s Fraud and Corruption Unit.
In the new case, there is no planned initial appearance. The Circuit Court for Baltimore County has set trial dates for Okolo’s additional cases on September 22, October 20, and December 1.
A person is deemed innocent unless the State establishes their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and criminal charge documents are only claims of crime.
