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Los Angeles, California – A Nevada woman who once operated an art insurance agency in Southern California was sentenced Monday to just over four years in federal prison for orchestrating a $3.7 million fraud scheme that exploited the niche world of art insurance. Tonja Van Roy, 59, was also ordered to pay $1.88 million in restitution following her conviction on a single count of wire fraud.
The sentencing, handed down by U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson in downtown Los Angeles, marks the end of a multiyear case that prosecutors described as both sophisticated and deeply cynical—an abuse of trust by someone with decades of insider knowledge in the insurance industry.
According to court documents, Van Roy owned and operated Pegasus Insurance, a Northridge-based firm that claimed to specialize in coverage for fine art collections. Between January 2021 and December 2023, she submitted dozens of fake premium finance applications to AFCO Credit Corporation, a lender based in Lake Forest, Illinois that finances insurance premiums for commercial clients.
The applications were elaborate fabrications. Prosecutors say Van Roy created fictitious art galleries, invented policy numbers, and forged signatures—going so far as to impersonate gallery owners to secure loans under false pretenses. The funds, which AFCO believed would go toward underwriting high-value art insurance policies, were instead redirected to Van Roy’s personal expenses, including payments on dozens of credit cards.
What made the scheme so durable, federal officials said, was the way Van Roy used her industry experience to stay a step ahead of detection. Rather than default outright, she created a financial loop that resembled a Ponzi scheme—relying on new fraudulent loan applications to pay off old ones and maintain the appearance of legitimate business activity.
“She manipulated her victims using her deep understanding of insurance operations,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “This was not opportunistic—it was calculated.”
Though Van Roy pled guilty in January, court officials emphasized the long duration of the deception and the scale of the financial harm as justification for the 50-month sentence. While the total amount fraudulently borrowed exceeded $3.7 million, not all of it was recovered, prompting the nearly $2 million restitution order.
The case underscores the vulnerability of even highly specialized financial sectors to fraud—particularly when the perpetrator has the credentials to mask misconduct behind industry jargon and documentation. It also highlights the continued challenge regulators and lenders face in detecting complex white-collar crimes that unfold over years, and under the guise of legitimate business.
Van Roy will serve her sentence in federal prison and be subject to three years of supervised release upon completion.
