Georgia's insurance commissioner, Jim C. Beck, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering.
The 38-count indictment alleged that Commissioner Beck stole more than $2,000,000 from his former employer, the Georgia Underwriting Association (“GUA”), during the five years just prior to his election to statewide office in November 2018.
“The grand jury seeks to hold Commissioner Beck accountable for taking advantage of his position at the Georgia Underwriting Association. Beck allegedly pocketed a substantial amount of money to which he was not entitled while he was the GUA general manager for operations,” U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak said in a statement. “To be clear, the grand jury has charged Commissioner Beck with crimes that occurred before he was elected to his current public office.”
According to U.S. Attorney Pak and the indictment, from January 2012 until Commissioner Beck was sworn in as insurance commissioner on January 14, 2019, he worked as the general manager of operations for the GUA after being elected to that post by the GUA board of directors. GUA, located in Suwanee, Georgia, is an insurance association created as part of the Georgia Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (“FAIR”) law to provide high risk property insurance to homeowners located throughout Georgia. In addition to premiums collected from its customers, GUA is also funded by issuing assessments to the association members, which include every insurer authorized to write any form of property insurance in Georgia.
While Commissioner Beck served as general manager at GUA, he also maintained controlling financial interests in two businesses known as Creative Consultants and the Georgia Christian Coalition. Beginning in 2013, Commissioner Beck allegedly talked four associates into forming four separate businesses that supposedly supplied necessary services including residential property inspections and water damage mitigation to GUA. These businesses were identified in the indictment as Companies A, B, C, and D.
As alleged, through an elaborate system of fraudulent invoicing that included producing false documentation and concealing the truth from his four associates, Commissioner Beck regularly approved substantial GUA payments to the four new companies. Commissioner Beck then allegedly sent fraudulent invoices from Creative Consultants and the GA Christian Coalition to Companies A, B, C, and D. According to the indictment, at Commissioner Beck's direction, his four associates paid the fraudulent invoices from a portion of the money they had been paid by GUA. All told, between February 2013 and August 2018, Commissioner Beck defrauded GUA out of more than $2,000,000, according to prosecutors.
Steven A. Meyerowitz
Steven A. Meyerowitz, a Harvard Law School graduate, is the founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. He may be contacted at [email protected].