Owings Mills Couple Charged In $20M Insurance Fraud Scheme
OWINGS MILLS, Md. (WJZ) -- Officials announced that a Baltimore County couple has been charged with conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and related charges for money laundering, filing false tax returns and identity theft.
According to authorities from 1996 to the present day, James and Maureen Wilson of Owings Mills conspired to defraud insurance companies by obtaining over 30 life insurance policies for applicants by mispresenting their health, wealth and existing life insurance coverage. Officials said the total death benefits from these policies were allegedly $20 million.
In addition, the Wilsons also conspired to defraud individual investors to obtain funds that the Wilsons used to pay premiums on fraudulently obtained life insurance policies. Authorities said the Wilsons allegedly transferred the proceeds of the fraud through multiple bank accounts to conceal the crimes -- including accounts in the name of trusts.
Authorities said the Wilsons allegedly did not report approximately $5.7 million and $2 million that they received in life insurance proceeds on their 2018 and 2019 individual tax returns.
If convicted, the Wilsons face a maximum of 20 years in prison wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering and three years in prison for each count of filing a false tax return.
James Wilson faces two years in prison for each count of aggravated identity theft and Maureen Wilson faces 10 years in prison for transactional money laundering.