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Johnson may have violated state statutes
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JANESVILLE - A Green County insurance investment agent may be facing the loss of her license.

Tammy Johnson is being investigated by the state Office of the Commissioner of Insurance for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from an 84-year-old Janesville man.

The elderly Janesville man was living on a fixed income - $235 in Social Security and a $452 life insurance payment every month.

No pension. No retirement plan.

But he had accumulated savings of more than $163,000 as a hard-working farmer.

When Johnson came knocking on his door, the 84-year-old was relieved he'd no longer have to worry about having enough money to live on.

After all, Johnson promised him a greater return on his investment than the rates he was earning on his bank accounts, according to an investigation report by the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance.

Over the next three years, Johnson visited the man several times and sold him insurance policies and annuity products that he didn't understand, according to a police report.

Through many transactions, Johnson put much of the man's life savings into investments that were not appropriate for him but that yielded tens of thousands of dollars in commissions for her, according to records.

Police got involved after the man's nephew and a neighbor learned the man had stopped receiving a dividend check from the life insurance annuity Johnson sold him.

A Janesville police detective was assigned and turned over the case to an investigator with the state Office of the Commissioner of Insurance.

The insurance commission's case against Johnson still is pending and under investigation. She was scheduled for a hearing in May, but it was rescheduled to Oct. 1 at her request, according to a commission spokesman.

If found in violation of state statutes, Johnson could lose her license to sell insurance, be ordered to pay fines and be told to make restitution, according to the state investigator.