A 37-year-old claims adjuster pleaded guilty to mail fraud May 5 after stealing from the very company for which he worked.
Ryan Paul Shipman of Billings, Mont. was a claims adjuster for Mountain West Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company where he handled P&C insurance. Shipman had been with the company since Oct. 2003, but from Oct. 2008 through Sept. 2010, he had been scheming with a client, named by the FBI in a press release only as "R.P."
To start raking in some dough, Shipman began to tack on additional charges to claims filed by Mountain West policyholders without their knowledge, ranging from deck repairs and vehicle storage fees to water damage repairs. He and R.P. then created false invoices for the alleged work R.P. or R.P.'s companies had performed, and received payouts from Mountain West's headquarters in Laramie, Wyo.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
