CEDAR RAPIDS -- Federal authorities have filed criminal charges against a former Dunkerton insurance agent who was barred from doing business last year.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Iowa submitted a seven-count information against Jack Straw on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids.

The document charges Straw with four counts of wire fraud and one count each of mail fraud, making a forged security and money laundering.

An court appearance is scheduled for Monday in Cedar Rapids.

The charges were the culmination of an investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspector and a similar study by state insurance regulators.

The criminal charges paralleled allegations levied in 2007 when the Iowa Insurance Division revoked Straw's license.

"This is good. At least it's gotten started," said Charles Johnson, 66, of Waterloo.

Johnson had invested about $28,000 with Straw's Financial Benefit Services Corp. The money has since disappeared.

Attorney Leslie Stokke, who is representing Straw, couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.

Straw, a former Buchanan County sheriff's deputy who coached football for Janesville and Northern University high schools, had lived in Dunkerton and operated an insurance and annuity company in Waterloo. He later moved to Cedar Rapids.

A significant portion of Straw's clientele was retirees, according to court records.

In October 2007, the Iowa Insurance Division revoked his license after he allegedly altered and misrepresented policies, misled clients, forged signatures and made unauthorized withdrawals from clients' annuity policies.

The charges filed Tuesday allege he forged client signatures on requests for funds in annuity accounts.

When he received the annuity checks, he again forged his clients' signatures and deposited the money into his own bank accounts.

"Straw use the proceeds from these checks for his own benefit or to lull previous victims of his fraudulent schemes," according to the information submitted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Berry. "In this manner, defendant Straw cheated his annuity clients out of nearly $1 million."

Court records allege Straw submitted a forged annuity request for a client identified as "J.B." in August 7, 2006.

He also obtained a $67,215 check by fraudulent means, records state. It was mailed to his Waterloo business in August 2006, records state.

Another count alleges Straw billed one of this clients for an insurance policy that benefited Straw's relatives.

He allegedly submitted a life insurance application listing his son-in-law as the insured and his daughter as the beneficiary.

He then used the client's banking information to set up an automatic premium payment from the client's account.

In September 2007, Straw allegedly bilked rental customers of one of his clients out of about $400,000 in a bogus land sale.

He went to renters who lived in a South Dakota home owned by one of his insurance customers and told them he had authority to sell the house.

Although he didn't have permission to sell it, he negotiated a $450,000 price, records allege. He then had the renters wire $399,932 to his own bank account, records state.

The money laundering charges stem from three cashiers checks totalling $106,764 that Straw obtained in September 2007.

In March, the government filed a forfeiture action on more than $220,000 that had been seized from Straw's bank accounts.

Contact Jeff Reinitz at (319) 291-1578 or jeff.reinitz@wcfcourier.com.