Former Georgia Insurance coverage Commissioner sentenced to 7 years in jail

ATLANTA – Georgia’s former insurance commissioner will spend more than seven years in jail after he finally accepted responsibility for a $ 2.5 million fraud on Tuesday, even when a federal judge told him to lie out of the city during his July trial Had condemned the witness stand.

U.S. District Judge Mark Cohen sentenced Jim Beck to seven years and three months in federal prison, less than the ten years that federal prosecutors originally sought but more than the five years that Beck’s attorneys argued was enough.

Cohen also ordered Beck pay $ 2.6 million in compensation and serve a three-year supervised release after his release from prison. Beck, 60, is on bail and is expected to report to jail in December.

The jury convicted Beck 37 cases in July of wire transfer fraud, postal fraud, money laundering and tax fraud. The allegations stemmed from Beck’s plan to fund more than $ 2.5 million from the Georgia Underwriting Association through a number of companies into his own bank accounts. Beck ran the state-approved private insurer of last resort for years before the Republican was elected insurance commissioner.

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Federal officials began investigating Beck when he was elected Georgia’s highest insurance regulator in 2018, and charged him weeks after the Republican took office in 2019 of deliberation.

“I am fully responsible and I accept the jury’s verdict,” Beck told Cohen on Tuesday before the judge sentenced him.

Cohen received 85 letters encouraging him to show mercy to Beck, which testified to his good works, Christian faith, and love for his family.

“I hope I’ve made life better than hurting people,” said Beck. “I know that I have actively damaged valuable relationships and I pray for restoration.”

On Tuesday, his sister and brother-in-law, the former pastor and his wife also testified for Beck.

“Today I see and live with a broken and repentant man,” said Lucy Beck, his wife.

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Cohen gave Beck a shorter sentence than the federal sentencing guidelines, which provided Beck with a prison sentence of eight to ten years. He said he was influenced by Beck’s past life, but said the former insurance regulator is still serving a long sentence for treating this former employer “as his personal piggy bank.”

Cohen on Tuesday belittled Beck’s testimony in court that Beck alleged he paid a computer programmer named Jerry Jordan to serve the association, but was unable to provide almost no evidence that Jordan even existed. Cohen referred to Beck’s testimony on various occasions as “outrageous” and “incredible” and “a bunch of malarkey” and said Beck “earned” extra time in prison for obstruction of justice.

“It seemed like he made it up,” Cohen said.

Of the reimbursement, $ 2.26 million will go to Cincinnati Insurance Co., which repaid its losses to the Georgia Underwriting Association. The remaining $ 358,000 will go to the IRS to repay Beck’s tax evasion.

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Cohen on Friday ordered Beck forfeit more than $ 2 million, including $ 426,000 in various accounts and two properties worth nearly $ 200,000. This money can be used towards the refund he owes.

Beck has been bailed out after his conviction, although he lives mostly at his home in Carrollton, west of Atlanta. Beck was automatically removed from office due to a conviction. He was suspended following his indictment, but continued to earn an annual salary of $ 195,000.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has named John King to lead the office, and the Republican is aiming for a full term in 2022.

Copyright 2021 by The Associated Press – All rights reserved.