Jim Beck, the suspended insurance commissioner of Georgia, has been convicted on 37 criminal counts related to the over $2 million he defrauded from the state’s insurer of last resort.
Beck was indicted weeks after he took office as insurance commissioner in 2019; he was charged with fraud and money laundering in a scheme to take money from his former employer, Georgia Underwriting Association (GUA). Through shell companies, Beck made family and friends send invoices to GUA for work that was not actually performed, and he pocketed the payments.
The commissioner testified in court earlier this week, saying that the “subcontractors” he directed during his time at GUA offered valuable data that helped increase the insurer’s profits. But prosecutors argued that much of the purported work was fake.
On top of presenting evidence of money transfers from the GUA through a series of companies, then into Beck’s bank accounts, prosecutors also argued that the former commissioner also concealed his financial interest in those companies – Green Technology Services and Paperless Solutions. Evidence was also presented where Beck posed as Green Technology owner Matt Barfield in an email to the wife of a friend.
Jurors ultimately rejected Beck’s claims about his subcontractors; he is scheduled for sentencing on October 08, 2021 for mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and tax fraud charges, The Associated Press reported.
US District Judge Mark Cohen of the Northern District of Georgia allowed Beck to remain free on bail, but ordered the former commissioner to be confined to his home in Carrollton while awaiting sentencing.
