Fraud Charges For Insurance CEO

The latest charges against Indemnity Insurance Corp.’s Jeffrey Cohen include wire fraud and money laundering. Cohen was previously accused of leading insurance regulators to believe his firm had $5.1 million at Susquehanna Bank, when it instead had a deficit of $9 million, according to court documents obtained by the Baltimore Sun.

Authorities allege he did this by falsifying financial documents, according to court papers, which allowed him to collect $100 million in insurance premiums. Indemnity reportedly insured more than 3,000 clients and had more than $25 million in premiums in several states.

Cohen’s case took a strange turn last month when police detained him after investigators uncovered evidence of a plot to attack the Delaware judge overseeing the liquidation of his business. Federal prosecutors disclosed evidence that Cohen had ammonium nitrate, often used in explosives, in a storage facility, and Cohen said he’d gone on a “reconnaissance mission” to the home of former Delaware insurance commissioner Lt. Gov. Matthew Denn, the paper reported.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joyce McDonald said in court that Cohen had cashed out a life insurance policy in January and wrote a will in June before he made recordings while driving to the homes of Denn and J. Travis Laster, the Delaware judge. “Society needs to look at the fact that killing isn’t wrong in certain circumstances, and killing culls the weak,” Cohen allegedly said in the recording played in court. “Killing culls the wrong so that society can have a better chance of survival without certain obstacles.”

McDonald argued Cohen should remain in custody. Brendan Hurson, Cohen’s public defender, responded to McDonald noting that Cohen has no prior criminal record, had a constitutional right to have firearms and to “muse about anything he wants to,” the Sun said.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Sullivan eventually deemed Cohen a flight risk and ordered him to be held. Though Cohen was previously facing 15 years in prison for each of five counts related to lying to insurance regulators, the most recent charges could add 120 years to his sentence if convicted.