Federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against Brendan Lawler, 58, and Lisa Lawler, 45, both of New Bedford, alleging the married couple operated a scheme to defraud clients seeking insurance coverage through their business, BL Insurance Brokerage, LLC. The charges, announced in a U.S. Attorney’s Office press release dated August 27, 2025, mark the escalation of a case that began with the agency’s abrupt closure in March 2024 amid allegations of converted premiums.
The federal complaint charges each defendant with one count of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. If convicted, each faces up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and fines of up to $250,000 per count. Both defendants appeared in federal court in Boston at 3:30 p.m. on August 27, 2025.
These federal criminal charges follow the abrupt and bizarre closure of the Lawlers’ agency reported on by Agency Checklists last year. See Owen Gallagher’s article of March 12, 2024, “Agency Checklists,” “Insurance Brokerage Abruptly Closes Amid Allegations of Converted Premiums.”
The Federal Criminal Case
According to the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the alleged scheme operated from March 2023 through March 2024. FBI Special Agent Michael Jankowiak’s supporting affidavit details how the Lawlers allegedly collected insurance payments from clients that should have been remitted to insurance providers, then pocketed the funds for personal use.
The investigation, conducted by the FBI’s Boston Financial Crimes Squad with assistance from the Massachusetts Division of Insurance and Insurance Fraud Bureau, alleges the couple defrauded at least 50 individuals or insurance providers and stole more than $700,000.
Jankowiak’s affidavit reveals that BL Insurance, organized by Brendan Lawler in March 2012, operated as a licensed insurance brokerage in multiple states including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The company maintained business accounts at Santander Bank, with records showing financial distress dating back to March 2018.
The Alleged Scheme
The affidavit details a pattern where the Lawlers collected client premiums but failed to remit payments to insurance carriers. Instead of forwarding the funds to insurers, the couple allegedly used the money for personal expenses, including payments for TikTok, Burger King, McDonald’s, Starbucks, liquor store purchases, private school tuition, utility bills, and personal credit card balances.
To conceal the theft and keep BL Insurance operational, the Lawlers allegedly used a “robbing Peter to pay Paul” approach, using incoming client funds to pay outstanding balances due to other clients’ insurers. The complaint describes how they created and distributed false insurance documents to clients, purporting to show coverage when none existed.
Bank records indicate the company’s financial deterioration accelerated by March 2023, when the Santander account was overdrawn more than 200 times between March 2023 and March 2024. The account frequently lacked funds to pay bills or make necessary business expenditures, including payments to insurance companies.
Detailed Victim Accounts
The affidavit provides specific examples of the alleged fraud through detailed accounts of multiple victims:
Victim 5, an insurance brokerage headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida, entered into a Producer Agreement with BL Insurance in April 2022. The relationship soured when Victim 5 stopped receiving copies of financing agreements for insureds working with BL Insurance in late summer 2023. When confronted about missing payments, Lisa Lawler falsely claimed payments had been sent when they had not. Victim 5 calculated that BL Insurance failed to remit approximately $109,621.05 in payments from insureds for the 2023-2024 coverage year, ultimately terminating its contract with BL Insurance in September 2023.
Victim 9 paid BL Insurance $4,077 for professional liability insurance coverage. After making the payment in September 2023, Victim 9 received a letter from the insurance company in November stating it had never received payment and the policy was cancelled. When questioned, Lisa Lawler provided a fabricated check image dated October 15, 2023, for $14,830.24, claiming it included Victim 9’s payment. However, BL Insurance made no payments to Victim 5 until January 2024, and those attempts caused overdrafts in the account.
Victim 13, a Massachusetts attorney, used premium financing to pay annual insurance policy premiums through BL Insurance. In January 2024, BL Insurance deposited Victim 13’s check but failed to remit the payment to the insurance company. Instead, the Lawlers transferred the funds to another account and used them to reimburse a different client. When Brendan Lawler attempted to obtain an insurance policy for Victim 13 through a Rhode Island agent, that agent stated she had no authority to bind policies and had never agreed to take on Victim 13 as a client. Despite failing to secure coverage, Brendan Lawler sent Victim 13 a Certificate of Insurance that was later confirmed by the insurance company to be “worthless.”
Civil and Regulatory Consequences
The criminal charges follow a March 2024 settlement agreement between the Lawlers and the Massachusetts Division of Insurance. The state agency had opened an investigation after at least 25 individuals and entities reported being defrauded by BL Insurance. The settlement resulted in immediate revocation of BL Insurance’s Massachusetts business entity insurance producer license and Brendan Lawler’s individual Massachusetts insurance producer license.
The agreement permanently bars Lawler from operating as an insurance producer in Massachusetts and prohibits him from applying for any insurance license in the state. He must also divest himself of any interests in licensed insurance entities and cannot serve as a manager, officer, director, or controlling person of any insurance entity in Massachusetts.
Multiple civil lawsuits have emerged from the agency’s collapse. Attorney Protective (AttPro), a subsidiary of MedPro Group/Berkshire Hathaway, filed suit in January 2024 alleging BL Insurance collected $136,479.10 in agency-billed premiums and $28,666.70 in direct-billed premiums after August 1, 2023, but failed to remit these funds. Three New York factoring companies have also sued the Lawlers and BL Insurance after purchasing the agency’s accounts receivable and encountering payment difficulties.
Professional Liability Coverage Crisis
The agency’s collapse created particular hardship for attorneys who had purchased professional liability insurance through BL Insurance. Many of these lawyers were bar advocate attorneys who specialized in criminal law as court-assigned counsel under the rules of the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS).
Attorneys accepting assignments under various Bar Advocate Programs must maintain continuous professional liability insurance with specific minimum coverage amounts and deductibles. The CPCS rules stipulated that coverage should not lapse or be cancelled, as this could void coverage for claims made before the start of any new policy.
For several weeks before BL Insurance’s March 7, 2024 closure, a program manager specializing in legal malpractice insurance received more than twenty-five calls from distressed lawyers. Each caller had purchased legal malpractice insurance through BL Insurance and paid premiums to the agency, but were receiving cancellation notices from their insurers or direct bills for premiums they had already paid.
Court Proceedings and Release Conditions
During their initial appearance before Magistrate Judge M. Page Kelley on August 27, 2025, both defendants were advised of their rights and the charges against them. The court appointed attorney Scott Lauer to represent Brendan Lawler and attorney Scott P. Lopez to represent Lisa Lawler after the defendants submitted financial affidavits.
The government did not seek detention for either defendant. Following a hearing on proposed conditions of release that included input from the parties and probation, both defendants were released under court-ordered conditions. The defendants waived their probable cause hearing, with the court conducting a colloquy to ensure the waivers were knowing and voluntary.
No trial date has been set. The next step in the proceedings will be either grand jury indictments if the defendants seek a trial, or the filing of an information by the U.S. Attorney if the defendants elect to plead guilty.
The Lawlers’ alleged conduct occurred during a period when Brendan Lawler claimed in an October 2023 email to a client that his wife had undergone hip replacement surgery in May 2023, and that payment delays resulted from his absence during her recovery. However, the FBI affidavit indicates the pattern of premium misappropriation was neither a one-time event nor the result of an administrative error, but rather a systematic scheme that continued for approximately one year.
The Prosecution Team
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement. Valuable assistance was provided by the Massachusetts Division of Insurance and Insurance Fraud Bureau. Assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan Cleary of the Criminal Division is prosecuting the case.
