Richard Yaksic, a former Prudential Insurance Company agent, was charged with insurance fraud for forging insurance check for 12 insured individuals in the Pittsburgh area. Two of the insured were his former fiancee and his brother, who turned him in to authorities. Yaksic, who had no prior convictions, was sentenced to 10 years probation, and $168,000 in restitution payment to Prudential. (Allegheny County Police and District Attorney's Office handled this case.) Another insurance agent, William J. Adams, of Camp Hill, was convicted of stealing more than $110,000 from an elderly man. Adams received checks totaling $220,200 from the victim and forwarded only $100,000 to John Hancock Insurance Company. Williams was sentenced to six months in prison and ordered to pay $150,034.88 in restitution. The elderly man's money was returned by John Hancock. (Cumberland County District Attorney's Office handled this case.) Stanley Clark was feeding his gambling habit by ripping off unsuspecting customers of his Allentown insurance agency. He was convicted of cashing over $20,000 in checks intended for the purchase of insurance policies and depositing them into his own account. Clark received five years probation, fines and restitution to each of his seven victims, many of whom are elderly. (Lehigh County District Attorney's Office) A Massachusetts insurance agent was sentenced to three years probation and a fine of $40,000 Wednesday for his role in a in a plan to reduce workers' comp insurance premiums for a rubbish collection company owned by a favored customer. Michael H. Bonacorso Jr., 51, of Lynn, Mass., was charged in December 1997 with conspiracy, mail fraud and wire fraud. He pleaded guilty to those charges in December of 1999. Bonacorso was reportedly assisting rubbish collection company owner David Vining in avoiding workers' comp premiums by using shell corporations to evade surcharges based on Vining's prior business accident history. Those accidents had a reported loss to insurance companies of between $120,000 and $200,000.