Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced that Doraville Police Chief John King has been appointed at the Acting Insurance Commissioner during the adjudication of his predecessor Jim Beck, who suspended himself after being indicted on federal charges. Beck was indicted on federal charges including wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering. He’s accused of devising an elaborate invoicing scheme to defraud his employer out of more than $2 million over a five-year period and of using some of the ill-gotten gains to fund his statewide election campaign. King is expected to run for the Insurance Commissioner post either in a special election in 2020 or for a full term in 2022.
King, a Brigadier General in the U.S. Army National Guard and native of Mexico, will be, once sworn in, the first Hispanic statewide constitutional officer in Georgia. The Governor indicated one of King’s many valued qualities is his high integrity that will enable him to restore public trust in the Insurance Department.
King’s bio lists his law career beginning in 1985 with the Atlanta Police Department, and then he began working for the Doraville Police Department in 1993 as a detective, before being named police chief in 2002.
King previously served as Commander of the Macon-based 48th
Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the National Guard, and saw deployments to
Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is the recipient of a Bronze Star Medal.