March 10--Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has hired a team of forensic auditors, the state-funded property insurer announced Friday.

Claiming it has raised its ability to "root out" fraud to a level on par with the industry's, the company said the new internal auditors come from backgrounds that include the Big Four accounting firms and the FBI.

"This forensic team is an integral part of our strengthened internal review structure, which provides clear lines of review for financial and workplace issues" said Barry Gilway, Citizens President and CEO in a written statement Friday.

According to a company news release, the new forensic audit personnel include:

--Josh Shilts, who leads the team, joined Citizens in February as director of Internal Audit/Forensics. He is a Certified Fraud Examiner. Most recently shilts worked as a manager of Litigation Support and Advisory Services for one of the nation's top-40 certified accounting firms.

--Gary Dagan, who is senior internal audit/forensics, will begin at Citizens this month. The 28-year veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigations served as chief of economic crimes and managed the Insurance Fraud, Securities Fraud program at FBI headquarters in Washington D.C.

--Mike Regan, who is senior internal auditor/forensics, has more than 20 years of internal audit and accounting experience. He was the manager of investigations and support audit at a Jacksonville-based bank before starting with Citizens in February,

Gilway has vowed to restore confidence in the troubled property insurer, which, since the beginning of the year has been the focus of much-publicized investigations by state office of the Inspector General into its lavish travel expenses and free-wheeling spending and wide-ranging reform legislation in Tallahassee.

With 1.3 million policies statewide, Citizens insures 191,092 properties in Broward and 133,589 in Palm Beach, and it is the ninth-largest home insurer in the nation.

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