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.
An FBI investigation determined that neither Shipman nor R.P. and his companies had performed any work for the claims paid by Mountain West, though Shipman and R.P. had been collecting the fraudulent funds and splitting the proceeds down the middle. Unfortunately, Shipman probably won't be able to pass off half of his prison sentence to R.P.
The court sentenced Shipman to 21 months in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release. The restitution he owes will be determined within 90 days of the May 5 hearing. Shipman will have the chance to reduce his sentence for "good behavior," which could shave off as much as 15 percent of the overall sentence. Because there is no option for parole in the federal system, Shipman will likely serve the entire sentence.
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