The Oklahoma Insurance Department fined a McAlester insurance agent and revoked her license after an Anti-Fraud Unit investigation.
The agency reported receiving a handful of complaints alleging Connie Cheri Ellis misappropriated more than $90,000 in customer premium payments, issued at least one fraudulent Certificate of Insurance, and misrepresented premium amounts owed to consumers.
A show-cause hearing was held Nov. 13, 2025, at the state Insurance Department’s offices, before an independent examiner; Ellis, 46, failed to appear for the hearing, Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready said.
After presentation of evidence, the hearing officer determined that Ellis failed to remit the premium payments of five insured customers to the proper insurer, resulting in cancellation of the customers’ policies; failed to remit returned premium to an insured within 30 days of receipt; provided a false or altered Certificate of Insurance to another customer; and misled five customers, accepting more than the required amount of premium, changing the payment terms for the customers’ policies, and misleading the customers about cancellations of their policies.
OID revoked Ellis’ license and issued a $12,000 fine against her. Ellis was the owner of Independent Insurance Agency in McAlester.
In addition, Ellis has become intimately familiar in the past 12 months with the Pittsburg County Courthouse, where she faces two felony charges of embezzlement; she and/or her insurance agency are named in three lawsuits claiming negligence, fraud and/or embezzlement; and she and her husband were sued for non-payment of the mortgage on their home.
Acting Pittsburg County District Attorney James M. Green filed a felony embezzlement charge against Ellis on May 14. The complaint alleges that between March 14, 2024, and Feb. 1, 2026, Ellis “fraudulently appropriated” $3,494 that “belonged to Frank Bennett Suter” of Kiowa and “had been entrusted to her” by Union Mutual Insurance agency.
In paperwork delivered to Ellis, Green wrote that the punishment upon conviction of the crime of which she stands accused is imprisonment in the state penitentiary at McAlester for up to five years “with the minimum amount to be served at 20%,” along with a fine of up to $5,000, plus restitution.
Assistant Oklahoma Attorney General Alvin Jones Jr. filed a felony embezzlement charge against Ellis on Nov. 20, 2025. It alleges that on March 18, 2024, Ellis received $4,158 from Diane Green d/b/a Treasure Trunk but “fraudulently appropriated” the money “to a use or purpose not authorized” by Green. Ellis’ bond was set at $10,000, court records indicate.
Joshua Padilla and his JP All American Outdoor Contracting filed an amended petition on Jan. 30, 2026, alleging that in August 2023 he asked Ellis to “procure liability and property insurance” for his commercial building in Krebs.
Padilla wrote that he was required to provide proof of insurance to his bank as a condition of receiving a loan to buy the real estate.
Ellis quoted a price of $1,575 for the premium, he paid it on Aug. 10, 2023, and Ellis’ Independent Insurance Agency, a broker, issued Padilla and the bank with a Certificate of Insurance from Progressive.
High winds caused “extensive damage” to Padilla’s property in Krebs six weeks later, so he asked Ellis to file a claim on his behalf.
“After a significant amount of time passed” following the intense storm, Padilla discovered that although Ellis took his money and told him and his lender that her company had procured coverage for Padilla, she “did not in fact procure the request insurance coverage” for his property.
In fact, he alleges, Ellis “knew as early as Aug. 14, 2023 – a full 40 days before the loss which occurred,” that no insurance coverage had been issued to Padilla.
Padilla sued Ellis and her insurance agency for negligence and fraud for “false representations concerning the existence of insurance coverage.”
The case is still active but no trial date has been set.
Traton Lindley and his Lindley Transport, a commercial trucking and transportation business in McAlester, filed suit against Cheri Ellis and her insurance brokerage on Sept. 3, 2025.
Lindley alleges that from May 2023 through October 2024 he paid Ellis $24,172 for insurance premiums “that were either never purchased or were purchased for less than the amounts” he paid her.
Lindley accuses Ellis of “keeping the excess premium payments” without his knowledge and consequently his insurance coverage was canceled without his knowledge, exposing him and his company to “possible criminal sanctions as well as financial ruin.”
Lindley writes that he was notified on Oct. 29, 2024, that the Department of Motor Vehicles / Service Oklahoma “had concerns” about his insurance and would conduct an insurance audit. Three days later, Lindley claims, he “learned for the first time” that his company was “totally uninsured.” At that moment, he was “driving an uninsured vehicle back from a route to Alabama.”
As a result, he was forced to shut down his business for several weeks until he could secure insurance coverage and state/federal agencies would allow his company to operate again.
Lindley sued Ellis and her IIA for negligence, fraud and/or embezzlement, and unjust enrichment.
District Judge Michael Hogan issued a default judgment against Ellis and her insurance brokerage on Jan. 14, 2026, and on Feb. 18 he ruled they committed fraud by embezzlement, unjust enrichment and/or negligence.
He also decided Traton and his company were damaged in the amount of $52,926.82; that included insurance overpayment, subcontract driving expenses, and lost income. Hogan also decreed that an equal amount in punitive damages should be assessed, for a total monetary award of $105,853.64 to Traton.
Leroy Matney Jr.’s lawsuit makes similar allegations.
He claims that in October 2024 he paid Ellis $535 for an auto insurance policy from Harbor Insurance Co. which purportedly was in effect from Oct. 3, 2024, to April 3, 2025.
However, Harbor canceled the policy on Oct. 30 because certain information requested in a letter from the company was never provided; the letter was sent to Ellis’ IIA, not to Matney.
Matney was involved in a traffic wreck on Nov. 5, 2024 that damaged his vehicle and the other driver’s, too. Only then did he learn that his insurance policy with Harbor had been terminated.
Matney filed suit May 12, 2025, against IIA, alleging negligence and fraud. Court records indicate a trial will be held later this year.
Bank United N.A. sued Connie Cheri Ellis and her husband on March 18, 2026, for failure to pay on their mortgage. The unpaid principal balance was $112,428 when the couple went into default on July 1, 2025; interest has been accruing since then at a rate of 4.75%, records reflect.