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A Chicago-based vice president of an insurance underwriting group fraudulently obtained more than $13.5 million from a corporate client by fraudulently issuing and collecting premium payments on “matching deductible” policies, according to federal criminal charges filed today by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago.

Federal prosecutors allege that David Ballard, 54, of Chicago, oversaw the Pennsylvania account of a large health care company. From 2005 to 2016, Ballard fraudulently issued “matching deductible” insurance renewal policies that his employer had not authorized, according to the charges filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In a statement federal prosecutors said Ballard “created and submitted to the health care company phony estimates, invoices, binder letters and policies that outlined the purported terms of coverage.”

He allegedly “had the premium payments diverted to a shell company that he controlled” and used the fraudulently obtained $13.5 million, “to pay personal expenses, including credit card bills, expensive dinners, travel costs, and real estate for himself and his family.”

Ballard is charged with one count of wire fraud and faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.

The charge was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Jeffrey S. Sallet, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Arraignment has not yet been scheduled.

Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois

Topics USA Fraud