TimesLeader.com

Scranton businessman files Chapter 7

By Shelby Fisk sfisk@scrantonedition.com
Scranton Edition Staff Writer / Photographer

SCRANTON – After Brian J. Murray of Murray Insurance Agency, Inc. filed chapter 7 bankruptcy protection on Sept. 22 movers were seen on Wyoming Avenue taking desks and tables out of the Murray Insurance Agency, Inc. building along Spruce Street, putting the items in a wheeled wooden crate attached to a white pickup truck and driving away.

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On the morning of Sept. 22 movers carried desks and tables out of Murray Insurance Agency, Inc. located on the corner of Spruce Street and Wyoming Avenue. Murray recently filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.

Shelby Fisk / The Times Leader

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Movers, who declined, to be named confirmed they were moving items from the offices inside the Murray Insurance Agency around 9:30 Thursday morning.

One worker said, “(The workers were moving) one or two of the offices out of Murray’s…some of the furniture’s coming out."

According to published reports, the agency opened in Scranton in 1981 at 415 Spruce St.

Murray later acquired properties along Wyoming Avenue, below where the firm’s offices ran, acting as a landlord for business along Wyoming Avenue, where businesses, including The Times Leader Scranton Edition, currently operate.

The firm also maintained insurance agency locations in Phoenixville, Pa., and Hamilton, Bermuda.

In August the state revoked Murray’s insurance license and was ordered banned from the industry for life in the wake of a fraud investigation involving one of his employees.

According to published reports, Christine Oliver-Shean, the company’s former president, stole almost $550,000 from 2002 to 2006.

The state investigation found that Murray allowed Shean to continue to sell insurance even though she had surrendered her license resulting from the investigation.

In the Chapter 7 filings, Murray listed one to 49 creditors, with assets between $1,000,001 to $10 million and liabilities between $1,000,001 and $10 million. The initial filings did not name individual creditors or provide any other details.

Murray’s attorney Ernest A. Sposto Jr. of Sposto Law Offices, PC said, “We’re very early on in the process,” and declined any further comments.