A Monroeville insurance agent has been charged for the third time in less than two years with fraudulent business practices.

Prosecutors in this most recent case with the Pennsylvania Attorney General say Chad G. Skena, 48, of Monroeville, talked a client into investing more than $75,000 in a phony business opportunity.

Skena was charged Tuesday in Armstrong County with insurance fraud, theft by deception, deceptive business practices and related charges.

Prosecutors said Skena told a client he was in the process of buying out his father’s insurance agency and was seeking an additional investor. He convinced his client to provide more than $75,000, which Skena said would come back as roughly $120,000 over the course of a year.

Skena’s insurance licenses have been revoked since March 17 of this year, state officials said.

Attorney General Dave Sunday said Skena also provided a mortgage document for his residence as backing for the investment. However, closer examination of the document showed Skena had set the terms to go into effect only if the victim were to pay $80,000, which they did not.

“This defendant has repeatedly taken advantage of trusting clients to line his own pockets — this time, lying about an investment he knew full well did not even exist,” Sunday said in a news release. “The publication of the defendant’s prior bad acts prompted this victim to come forward, and our Insurance Fraud Section took it from there.”

Skena, who operated an insurance agency in his name, offered to “bundle” existing customers’ insurance policies and offered “special covid 19” rates between 2020 and 2022, promising to save clients money, prosecutors said last year.

Skena then misappropriated the money — ranging from $800 to $24,000 per customer — and deposited it into his own personal accounts.

The initial investigation began when a Safeco insurance customer called the attorney general’s insurance fraud investigations division to report that Skena had offered to reduce their auto insurance premiums by “bundling” their policies, according to a criminal complaint.

Skena was ultimately charged in two separate cases, to which prosecutors added the third this week.

“This case is a lot different than the other two,” said Skena’s attorney, Patrick Thomassey, on Tuesday. “This was someone with more of a personal relationship with my client. I think there’s a lot that still needs to be sorted out and determined, and we’ll see when the hearing comes.”

Skena was released on $50,000 unsecured bail. An Oct. 14 preliminary hearing is set in Judge Kevin Lee McCausland’s Rural Valley court.

Jury selection for trials on the earlier charges is scheduled for Nov. 12 in the Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court.

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