IMA Financial Group, a a North American insurance brokerage based in Denver, has added Valent Group, one of
Alabama’s largest privately held insurance brokers, to its team of affiliated firms.
Valent, a subsidiary of EBSCO Industries, will retain its name and four offices in Birmingham, Mobile, Huntsvi
lle and Decatur, the companies said in a news release. Its 86 employees will be associates of IMA Financial.
Valent also provides risk consulting for businesses, along with claims advocacy and loss control analysis, with a focus on condominium associations.
IMA said it is an employee-owned company with 2,700 associat
es around the country that has expanded through organic growth and partnerships with brokerages.
A federal judge in Georgia last week also ordered Andrew Aga, sometimes known as Andrew Mitchell, to pay som
e $2.9 million in restitution for the Georgia scam and another $1.1 million for similar fraud in Louisiana and Texas tha
t he admitted to in court. His prison sentence will be concurrent with a 20-year sentence he received in
2023 for the Louisiana and Texas crimes, the judge said.
“Andrew Mitchell will spend nearly two decades in prison for c
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oncocting a devious scheme to swindle insurance money from a historic downtown Albany church, a crime he’s comm
itted in other communities after natural disasters,” U.S. Attorney William “Will” Keyes said in a statement.
Aga fell under the scrutiny of Georgia Office of Insurance Commissioner investigators after Hurricane Mich
ael hit Florida and part of Georgia in 2018. Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Albany was left with ext
ensive wind and water damage, court documents show. Brotherhood Mutual, based in Indiana, paid the church $183,208 on the claim in late 2018.