A Georgia producer willfully converts premium funds for personal use. Under what condition does the offense rise from a misdemeanor to a felony?

Why A is correct

Under O.C.G.A. § 33-23-35(c), a willful violation of the premium fiduciary rule is a misdemeanor, but it becomes a felony once the amounts involved exceed $1,000. Because a single mid-size premium often exceeds that figure, producers face felony exposure quickly and must treat premium accounts with strict fiduciary care.

Why the other options are wrong

• B) $500 is not the Georgia threshold; the felony line is $1,000.
• C) The number of clients does not matter; the dollar amount controls.
• D) A cease and desist order is irrelevant to whether the conversion is a misdemeanor or a felony.

Memory hook

Over a grand, it's a felony — Georgia counts the dollars.

Why B is correct

Under O.C.G.A. § 33-23-35(c), a willful violation of Georgia's premium-fiduciary rule is a misdemeanor, but it becomes a felony once the amounts involved exceed $1,000. This gives producers a bright-line criminal boundary: even routine 'borrowing' of premium dollars past the $1,000 mark converts a licensing problem into felony exposure.

Why the other options are wrong

• A) $500 is not Georgia's felony threshold; the Georgia statute draws the line at $1,000, so amounts between $500 and $1,000 remain misdemeanor territory rather than a felony.
• C) $5,000 is the statutory floor of the bad-faith penalty computation under O.C.G.A. § 33-4-6, not the premium-misappropriation felony threshold of O.C.G.A. § 33-23-35(c).
• D) $10,000 is the per-act civil penalty ceiling in a cease-and-desist action under O.C.G.A. § 33-6-9, a separate regulatory sanction unrelated to the felony threshold.

Memory hook

Steal a grand in Georgia and the misdemeanor grows into a felony.