U.S. Army officer arrested & charged with defrauding insurance providers

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An officer of the U.S. Army has been charged with defrauding insurance providers to obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent insurance payments.

Mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering

Christopher James DeMure, 40, a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army, was named in a criminal complaint charging him with mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.

The complaint alleged that, from September 2014 until February 2018, Lieutenant Colonel DeMure engaged in a scheme to defraud USAA Federal Savings Bank and American Express to obtain insurance payments by submitting fraudulent claims and other fraudulent documents.

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According to prosecutors, Lieutenant Colonel DeMure spent much of the insurance payout money to pay off automobile loans, credit cards, mortgage loans, and other personal debts and expenses, including a 2016 Chevrolet Suburban and a 2016 Audi A7.

In all, the government alleged, Lieutenant Colonel DeMure’s insurance claims sought payments in the amount of approximately $475,000, and Lieutenant Colonel DeMure actually received approximately $394,000 from USAA and AMEX, combined.

More specifically, prosecutors alleged that Lieutenant Colonel DeMure purchased items of value, such as jewelry, performance bicycles, clothing, and electronics, that later were the subject of insurance claims that he filed with USAA and/or AMEX.

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On multiple occasions, Lieutenant Colonel DeMure cancelled an online order for or physically returned items for a full refund, and thereafter listed those same items on a fraudulent insurance claim with USAA and/or AMEX, in which he falsely claimed that the item had been lost, misplaced, and/or stolen, according to the charges.

Parallel fraudulent insurance claims

Beginning in October 2015, Lieutenant Colonel DeMure began to file parallel fraudulent insurance claims for certain items with both USAA and AMEX, the government asserted.  As alleged, in some cases, Lieutenant Colonel DeMure provided different explanations for the loss, misplacement, or theft of those items to USAA and AMEX.

According to the government, Lieutenant Colonel DeMure’s scheme to defraud involved at least seven separate loss incidents. For example, the government asserted, in July 2016, Lieutenant Colonel DeMure moved from Fort Benning, Georgia, to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.

The U.S. Army paid for a company to pack and move Lieutenant Colonel DeMure’s residential household goods from Georgia to Alaska. Those household goods were packed by the moving company on July 13, 2016.

Burglary claimed

As alleged, on July 21, 2016, Lieutenant Colonel DeMure contacted USAA and claimed that a U-Haul trailer that he had rented had been burglarized in Louisville, Kentucky, where he stopped on the way to Indiana, and he claimed the loss amount was $215,317.68. The following day Lieutenant Colonel DeMure contacted the Louisville Metro Police Department to report the burglary, according to the charges.

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In his USAA claim, the government asserted, Lieutenant Colonel DeMure identified numerous items as having been stolen from the U-Haul in Louisville, ranging from jewelry to performance bicycles. The jewelry items included a Tiffany & Co. necklace that Lieutenant Colonel DeMure told USAA was a family heirloom, which had an appraised value of $35,000.

In fact, according to prosecutors, business records showed that Lieutenant Colonel DeMure purchased the necklace on June 1, 2016, had it appraised on June 15, 2016, returned it on July 6, 2016, and on July 11, 2016 had it insured by USAA.

Received $183,339.73 from claims

Altogether, DeMure received an overall payment benefit of $183,339.73 from the claims he filed with USAA and AMEX related to the purported July 20, 2016 U-Haul burglary, prosecutors asserted.

The government’s complaint further alleged that some of the supporting documents that Lieutenant Colonel DeMure submitted to USAA and AMEX were fraudulent. For example, in support of an insurance claim, Lieutenant Colonel DeMure allegedly submitted a fake police department report to AMEX to evidence a loss.

Possible 20-year sentence

If convicted, Lieutenant Colonel DeMure faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, or both.

tteven A. Meyerowitz, Esq., (smeyerowitz@meyerowitzcommunications.com) is director of FC&S Legal, editor-in-chief of Insurance Coverage Law Report, and founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc.