CEDAR RAPIDS -- Federal authorities have moved to seize about $200,000 from an insurance agent and investment broker who allegedly bilked clients out of more than $1 million.

State regulators stripped Jack L. Straw, formerly of Dunkerton, of his insurance license in October after receiving complaints he altered and misrepresented policies, misled clients and made unauthorized withdrawals from clients' annuity policies.

Straw, who had offices in Waterloo and Clear Lake and recently moved to Cedar Rapids, has been receiving in-patient psychiatric care since September, according to court records.

A criminal probe is under way, but no charges have been filed.

On Friday, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Cedar Rapids entered a forfeiture action against three cashiers checks from bank accounts in the name of Straw and his companies, Benefit Services Corp. and JLS and Associates.

"I have probable cause to believe that these monies represent the proceeds of mail and wire fraud," U.S. Postal Inspector Tina Lathrop, who is involved in the investigation, said in a sworn affidavit submitted to the court.

She said Straw's alleged crimes occurred over several years and resulted in the loss of more than $1 million by clients, making the sought-after forfeiture worth only a fraction of the missing money.

The cashiers checks were seized from banks in October and are in the possession of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

The largest is for $204,081 and comes from a Bank of the West account in the names of Jack Straw and JLS.

The second is for $16,904 from the Benefit Services account at Family Merchants Bank and the third is for $7,342 from the Bank of the West account for Straw and Benefit Services.

Investigators have received a number of complaints from elderly residents who are Straw's clients, and former Benefit Services employees said Straw used a series of bank accounts for the business, records state.

"Many of these accounts were continually overdrawn and were eventually closed by the bank. Straw would then open new accounts and the fraudulent activity continued," Lathrop said in the affidavit. "Money from victims was deposited into many different accounts and moved from bank to bank."

After news that regulators found problems with Straw's business, elderly Mason City residents contacted authorities with concerns over a mid-September transaction with Straw.

Straw's Bank of the West account was wired about $450,000, which came from the sale of land in South Dakota, records state.

"The complainants believed based upon what Mr. Straw had told them that he would be investing the proceeds from the sale in investments," the postal inspectors affidavit said. "However, the complainants received no documentation or verification of any investments or other disposition of this money."

Other clients who came forward said they were merely given a generic computer printout with a policy number, their name and the amount of their investment.

A Waterloo man, Jeffrey William Holmes, filed a lawsuit against Straw in December over $25,000 Holmes paid as part of a plan to buy into Straw's company. That suit is still pending in court.

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