Jurors convict former Georgia insurance chief in $2.5M fraud
Associated PressATLANTA — It took less than two hours Thursday for jurors to decide that Georgia’s suspended insurance commissioner was indeed a “fraudster” and not an innovator, as they convicted Jim Beck on 37 criminal counts relating to more than $2.5 million he embezzled from his former employer. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Gray said in closing arguments that Beck is a “thief.” “He is an ordinary, plain, fast talking — and rich — fraudster,” Gray said. They pointed to an email Beck drafted laying out how the trail of payments ultimately reached him, with Gray calling it “absolutely a smoking gun.” Gray rehashed an email in which Beck posed as Green Technology owner Matt Barfield to the wife of a longtime friend, saying Beck was “caught red-handed lying.” Beck testified that his work provided important data that allowed GUA to charge higher premiums and pay less to reinsurers to share its risks. “Jim Beck treated that company that those customers paid money to as a piggy bank,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sekret Sneed said.
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$2.5M theft scheme: Georgia ex-official begins prison term
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Former Georgia insurance commissioner sentenced to 7 years
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