Montana insurance agency owner sentenced to 4 years in prison for fraud, ID theft

The agent impersonated a college employee and fraudulently set up an insurance financing agreement.

“When we pay our insurance premiums, we expect to have coverage when we need it,” U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said in a release. “Here, Hagadone’s clients, including a community college, logically thought they had coverage because they paid for it. But Hagadone did not just cheat them of coverage, she stole their hard-earned money and spent it for her own personal use.” Credit: Jiri Flogel/Shutterstock.com

The owner of Rosebud County Insurance Inc. was sentenced to four years and three months in prison and ordered to pay $155,436 in restitution for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for using clients’ premiums to cover personal expenses, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Montana.

Kileen Moria Hagadone of Forsyth, Montana, ran the scheme from 2020 through about April 2023, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. She pleaded guilty in August 2023.

Hagadone is accused of collecting premiums but not submitting the payments to the insurance carriers, resulting in her clients being uninsured.

Chief Dull Knife College was defrauded out of $91,883 in 2021, according to the attorney’s office. Instead of remitting the school’s premium onto its carrier, Hagadone kept the money. She then impersonated a school employee and fraudulently set up a premium financing agreement, allowing her to pay the college’s premium in installments.

However, Hagadone failed to make the installment payments. The school’s insurance was canceled in April 2022, but the insurance agent hid the cancellation so she could continue defrauding the school.

In November 2022, Hagadone created a fake insurance policy for the college, which paid the agent $98,893 for the bogus coverage. Because of the agent’s fraudulent behavior, the college went without insurance coverage from April 2022-April 2023, according to the attorney’s office.

Hagadone allegedly defrauded other clients in a similar manner, although for sums that were typically smaller than the amounts the college had paid.

“When we pay our insurance premiums, we expect to have coverage when we need it,” U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said in a release. “Here, Hagadone’s clients, including a community college, logically thought they had coverage because they paid for it. But Hagadone did not just cheat them of coverage, she stole their hard-earned money and spent it for her own personal use. The good news is she did not get away with it, and the only reason she didn’t is because of the diligent and collaborative work of the office of the Montana State Auditor, FBI and Rosebud County Sheriff’s Office in investigating this case.”

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