Meridian bail bond owner receives probation for insurance fraud

A bail bond business owner and agent was convicted of insurance fraud after investigators found several years’ worth of altered bond documents.

On June 30, the Idaho Department of Insurance announced that Jill Marie Buratto, of Nampa, and owner of JB Bail Bonds in Meridian, pleaded guilty to insurance fraud.

Buratto was found to be “falsely reporting and accounting for fiduciary and/or trust funds and diverting those funds to her own use” over a period of years, DOI stated in a release. She was a licensed bail agent and appointed to issue bail bonds by the Allegheny Casualty Company and International Fidelity Insurance (AIA) company in 2014.

According to DOI, an investigation by its fraud unit discovered Buratto had altered penal amounts on several bail bond documents, submitting falsified documents to AIA in the amounts of $10,000 instead of $100,000. The department stated that she “paid significantly lower premiums and trust payments ($100 instead of $1,000 toward each account) while collecting the higher bond amounts from bailees).” The funds that were underreported were used for Buratto’s personal spending.

The bail bond owner’s license was revoked on May 1, 2024, and on June 18, 2025, she was sentenced to five years of probation (the maximum sentence), 60 hours of community service, a $2,000 fine and was ordered to pay restitution.

“Trust is essential in any profession, especially in the bail industry,” said Dean L. Cameron, director of DOI. “Families and those needing these services deserve honesty and integrity from those marketing bail bonds. When that trust is broken, it puts consumers and companies at risk.”

Cameron added that his department is committed to holding bail agents to account and to ensure the integrity of the industry for residents of the state.