48 Global Trips for CA Insurance Commish Ricardo Lara as Insurance Carriers Were Leaving California

‘Safari, limo, 5-star resorts: CA insurance boss’ taxpayer-funded travel, security raise questions’

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Where’s Ricardo? He’s not in his office, that’s for sure.

California’s elusive Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has built up a lot of frequent flyer miles while California homeowners have been getting hit with massive spikes in insurance premiums, or getting notices that their insurance is cancelled altogether, leaving only double or triple rate increases in the government’s last-resort FAIR insurance plan.

Insurance expert Stacy Korsgaden reported at the Globe in May, “What was once a department designed to foster fairness and oversight has morphed into a political weapon: slow-moving, expensive, and utterly disconnected from reality. It no longer serves consumers. It punishes businesses, bullies carriers, and micromanages private industry into submission. The result is chaos, uncertainty, and a chilling message to every company watching from the sidelines: stay out of California.”

Back in March, the Globe reported on the elusive Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s globe-trotting, courtesy of the California taxpayers, while the state’s insurance companies left California. Lara traveled to grand places – 15 different countries paid for by California’s taxpayers, according to KGO/ABC7.

Maybe Lara thinks he’s the California Travel Insurance Commissioner.

Lara enjoys traveling on the taxpayer dime, according to KGO/ABC7, who questioned Lara’s travel record since 2019:

“7 On Your Side obtained and analyzed hundreds of public records that detail at least 46 cross-country and international trips all over the world — including at least 11 taxpayer-funded excursions to places like Bogota, Paris, and Toronto. But after more than a month of questioning his office, Lara’s staff has been unable to identify the business purpose for nearly all of them.”

Well, that excellent reporting, as well as the ongoing insurance crisis, hasn’t slowed Lara down one bit.

Wednesday, ABC7 News said they have been requesting information about 48 of Commissioner Lara’s trips for more than nine months.

He’s up to 48 global trips now. It’s travel and includes a safari, limousines, 5-star resorts, and security protection, ABC7 said. Lara’s travel included a “luxurious 10-day trip to Dubai,” and “an extravagant trip to Cape Town, South Africa for an international insurance conference. The conference was only two days — yet receipts show taxpayers paid for his entire two-and-a-half-week stay.”

Lara’s office “has only identified a direct business purpose for seven of those trips, three of which included vague descriptions. Due to incomplete records, it’s unclear how many of these trips were taxpayer funded. Receipts show expenses for at least 13 pricey trips were on taxpayers’ dime.”

One non-insurance trip included “a five-star hotel stay in New York City for PrideFest that cost taxpayers more than $11,600. The four-day trip listed no insurance-related meetings on his calendar, but a VIP rooftop event with ‘DJ Kitty Glitter’ made the cut.”

ABC7 News continues: “Lara’s five-day trip to Bogota, Colombia for an ‘LGBTI Political Leaders Conference’ cost taxpayers more than $24,000. That’s five times more than previously recorded. No insurance-related meetings were listed on his calendar, but receipts show he spent more than $7,000 on ‘taxi fares.’ It turns out a private security firm was hired to accompany him at the conference.”

Where else did Ricardo Lara travel? Santiago, Chile. Japan. Paris. Hawaii. The UK. Egypt. Singapore. Alaska. Hawaii. Toronto. The list is long.

Click here to read the full article in the California Globe