ALJDEC - Licensing

25A-051-INS · Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions - Insurance · 2025-07-07

IN THE OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

In the Matter of:

Alexander Soltanian

(National Producer Number 18625077),

Petitioner.

No. 25A-051-INS

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE DECISION

HEARING: June 19, 2025 at 9:00am

APPEARANCES: Complainant Alexander Soltanian on his own behalf. Assistant Attorney General Heather McCoy represented the Department of Insurance & Financial Institutions with Aqueelah Currie as a witness.

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE: Nicole Robinson

EXHIBITS ADMITTED INTO EVIDENCE: Department Exhibits 1 through 7. Notice of Hearing Packet. Petitioner Exhibit A.

_____________________________________________________________________

FINDINGS OF FACT

On March 23, 2025, Alexander Soltanian (“Petitioner”), submitted an application to the Arizona Department of Insurance & Financial Institutions (“Department”) for an Arizona insurance producer license through the National Insurance Producer Registry (“Application”).

In the Application, under the “Background Questions” section, Petitioner responded “No” to Question 2, which asked:

2: Have you ever been named or involved as a party in an administrative proceeding, including FINRA sanction or arbitration proceeding regarding any professional or occupational license or registration? “Involved” means having a license censured, suspended, revoked, canceled, terminated; or, being assessed a fine, a cease and desist order, a prohibition order, a compliance order, placed on probation, sanctioned or surrendering a license to resolve an administrative action. “Involved” also means being named as a party to an administrative or arbitration proceeding, which is related to a professional or occupational license, or registration. “Involved” also means having a license, or registration application denied or the act of withdrawing an application to avoid a denial. INCLUDE any business so named because of your actions in your capacity as an owner, partner, officer or director, or member or manager of a Limited Liability Company. You may EXCLUDE terminations due solely to noncompliance with continuing education requirements or failure to pay a renewal fee. ...

Petitioner further certified and attested that, under the penalty of perjury, all of the information submitted in the Application was true and complete, and that submitting false information was grounds for denial of the license.

The Department then conducted a review of Petitioner’s background check through the Regulatory Information Retrieval System (“RIRS”), which is a database maintained by state insurance departments to track disciplinary actions against licensees in its industry. During the course of the background check, it was discovered that, on or about September 8, 2021, disciplinary action was taken against Petitioner’s insurance producer license in the state of New York.

The New York State Department of Financial Services, Notice of Disciplinary Actions Against Licensees or Registrants Under the Insurance Law dated November 30, 2021 issued a $1,500.00 fine against Petitioner because

[Petitioner] failed to report to the Superintendent within thirty days of the initial pretrial hearing date that he was the subject of a criminal prosecution. Additionally, [Petitioner] failed to timely respond to Departmental investigatory letters, and thereby hampered and impended the Department’s investigation. [Stipulation approved September 8, 2021.]

On April 3, 2025, the Department, through Licensing Supervisor Aqueelah Currie, sent a letter to Petitioner. The letter stated, in pertinent part:

The Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions (DIFI) (the department) recently received your application for a non-resident license through the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR). In the “Background Questions” section of the application, question 2 asks, “Have you or any business in which you are an owner, partner, officer or director, or member or manager of a limited liability company, ever been involved in an administrative proceeding or occupational license or registration?” Your answer was, “No”. DIFI has received evidence from another state’s insurance department that this response is not correct. Based on the possible failure to disclose, DIFI may initiate an administrative action against you for failing to fully disclose information on the application.

To complete the processing of your application you have the following options:

Withdraw the incorrectly filed application: By sending an email to [email redacted] requesting the incorrectly submitted application be withdrawn. After the incorrect application has been withdrawn, you may resubmit a NEW application and fee with the correct response to question 2 of the “Background Questions”.

Proceed with the current application: You must request that DIFI continue with your current application.

Please note that if you choose to proceed with the current application, you will no longer have the option to withdraw the incorrectly filed application. Review of the current application will proceed and may result in a denial or an administrative action.

On April 8, 2025, Petitioner sent an email to the Department which indicated that the “stipulation had arisen when this case was dismissed and sealed,” he believed that New York made a “mistake,” and never mentioned that he wanted to withdraw his current Application.

On April 9, 2025, the Department sent an email to Petitioner asking him how he wanted to proceed with his current Application: (1) withdraw or (2) proceed with the current Application. Later that day, Petitioner responded that “Texas approved licensure without documentation” and that full disclosure was provided.

On April 11, 2025, the Department sent an email to Petitioner requesting again if he wanted to proceed with the current Application or withdraw. Later that day, Petitioner responded that he would like to proceed with the current Application.

On April 20, 2025, the Department issued a letter to Petitioner notifying him that the Application was denied pursuant to Ariz. Rev. Stat. §§ 20-295(A)(1) and (A)(3).

Shortly thereafter on April 20, 2025, Petitioner filed an appeal regarding the denial, and the matter was referred to the Office of Administrative Hearings for an evidentiary hearing.

On May 7, 2025, the Department issued a Notice of Hearing setting the above-captioned matter for hearing on June 19, 2025 at 9:00am. The Notice of Hearing provided that the issue set for hearing stated “[t]o determine whether grounds exist to affirm the intent to deny the Petitioner’s Application for an Arizona non-resident insurance producer license.”

At the hearing, the Department presented the testimony of Ms. Currie, who testified as to the above timeline of events. Ms. Currie testified that she reviewed the information provided by Petitioner concerning the stipulation and future court case and whether this matter was dismissed and sealed or would be dismissed and sealed, did not weigh on where matters stood with the March 23, 2025 Application.

Petitioner testified on his own behalf. Petitioner argued that he accurately answered Question 2 on the Application. Petitioner testified that he was not aware that this 2021 information would populate on RIRS, nor did he have access to that database. Petitioner provided Petitioner Exhibit A, a Nassau New York District Court document dated June 11, 2025, showing that three criminal charges were sealed, two of those charged were dismissed, and one count was reduced.

CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

Petitioner bears the burden of persuasion.

The standard of proof on all issues in this matter is that of a preponderance of the evidence.

A preponderance of the evidence is:

The greater weight of the evidence, not necessarily established by the greater number of witnesses testifying to a fact but by evidence that has the most convincing force; superior evidentiary weight that, though not sufficient to free the mind wholly from all reasonable doubt, is still sufficient to incline a fair and impartial mind to one side of the issue rather than the other.

Consequently, the Department’s Director has discretion to deny Petitioner’s Application based on Ariz. Rev. Stat. §§ 20-295(A)(1) and (A)(3), which state in pertinent part:

A. The director may deny, suspend for not more than twelve months, revoke or refuse to renew an insurance producer's license or may impose a civil penalty in accordance with subsection F of this section or any combination of actions for any one or more of the following causes:

1. Providing incorrect, misleading, incomplete or materially untrue information in the license application.

. . . .

3. Obtaining or attempting to obtain a license through misrepresentation or fraud.

In this case, the preponderance of the evidence shows that Petitioner was aware of his administrative proceeding by the New York State Department of Financial Services, however, the Application was still submitted with false or misleading information. That Petitioner was able to get two of the underlying criminal charges dismissed and those charges sealed does not negate the fact that Petitioner failed to disclose the administrative proceeding he underwent in regards to his New York insurance producer license, which resulted in a stipulation and a civil penalty.

As such, Petitioner failed to demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence that the Department’s decision to deny his Application should be overturned.

RECOMMENDED ORDER

IT IS RECOMMENDED that Petitioner’s appeal be dismissed.

Pursuant to A.R.S. § 41-1092.08(I), the licensee may accept the Administrative Law Judge Decision by advising the Office of Administrative Hearings in writing not more than ten (10) days after receiving the decision. If the licensee accepts the Administrative Law Judge Decision, the decision shall be certified as the final decision by the Office of Administrative Hearings.

In the event of certification of the Administrative Law Judge Decision by the Director of the Office of Administrative Hearings, the effective date of the Order will be forty (40) days from the date of that certification.

Done this day, July 7, 2025.

/s/ Nicole Robinson

Administrative Law Judge

Transmitted by either mail, e-mail, or facsimile to:

Maria Ailor, Interim Director

Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions - Insurance

Alexander Soltanian

[email redacted]

Heather McCoy

Office of the Attorney General

[email redacted]

By: OAH Staff