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House Bill 3376 |
House Author: Taylor |
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Effective: 9-1-05 |
Senate Sponsor: Lucio |
House Bill 3376 amends provisions of the Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure relating to money laundering and insurance fraud. The bill expands the offense of money laundering to apply to a person who conducts or intends to conduct the financing or investment of funds intended for use in criminal activity and specifies that a person commits such an offense by knowing that funds are proceeds of criminal activity but without knowing the specific nature of the activity. The bill makes it a state jail felony for a person to launder funds with a value of at least $1,500 and not more than $20,000 and revises the value limits for other felony offenses, making it a third-degree felony if the funds are at least $20,000 and not more than $100,000, a second-degree felony if at least $100,000 and not more than $200,000, and a first-degree felony if over $200,000. The bill exempts a financial institution that seizes funds for a law enforcement purpose from paying civil damages to those who claim an ownership interest in the funds or who conduct a transaction with funds involved in a money laundering offense.
House Bill 3376 applies provisions relating to insurance fraud to any type of insurance policy or other instrument regulated by the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) rather than specifically to a health insurance policy or a property and casualty insurance policy. The bill provides that an insurance claim's materiality includes information that may affect policy coverage eligibility, payment on a claim, or an insurer's decision to issue a policy and expands the offense of insurance fraud to include fraudulent conduct relating to an insurance policy application. The bill makes it a state jail felony to prepare a statement for an insurer that the person knows to contain false or misleading material information and increases from $20 to $50 the minimum amount required for a Class B misdemeanor relating to a false claim, making it a Class C misdemeanor for a false claim for less than that amount. The bill adds insurance fraud to the list of offenses punishable as organized crimes. House Bill 3376 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to increase the statute of limitations for insurance fraud from three to five years from the commission of the offense and to require a court to notify TDI if a licensed insurance agent is convicted of or receives deferred adjudication for theft, fraud, money laundering, or insurance fraud.