NEW YORK, N.Y., April 3 – A Canadian man was extradited to the United States to stand trial on charges that he swindled $7 million from hard to insure bars and restaurants though phony commercial insurance policies.

Ian Stuart-Smith is being held in New Yorks Metropolitan Correction Center while awaiting his trial in Manhattan Federal Court. Acting Insurance Superintendent Eric R. Dinallo said that Stuart-Smith posed as a New York wholesale insurance broker authorized to sell policies for several underwriters, including Lloyds of London. Stuart-Smith allegedly operated under several purported brokerages called Surplus Lines, Inc., Heritage, Inc. and Rupertsland Insurance Intermediaries, Ltd., located in New York and Ontario, Canada.

One of Stuart-Smiths alleged business colleagues, Richard Peterson, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $13 million in restitution and forfeitures for insurance fraud last month.