60 Years in Prison for $100M Insurance Fraud
A federal judge, after hearing tear-filled testimony from many people whose life savings were wrongfully stolen from them, sentenced a Texas man to 60 years behind bars. This was due to his participation in a $100 million life insurance scam that affected 800 innocent people in several U.S. states and Canadian provinces.
Adley Abdulwahab was convicted of 15 counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, money laundering, and wire fraud by a Richmond jury in June.
Abdulwahab, 36, was a principal member of the company A&O that used investor funds to purchase life insurance policies from individuals at a cost less than face value. These investors were supposed to receive a profit when the insured died, however, A&O’s associates would spend the money on frivolous lifestyles instead. Eventually the policies would lapse and, as a result, the investors lost their money.
Abdulwahab had the chance to address the court before his sentencing and remarked that the value of the alleged insurance policies was miscalculated, blamed a co-defendant for encouraging him to be a part of A&O, and that the prosecutors refused to meet with him before the investigation began.
Paula Higdon Whitaker from Magnolia, Texas lost her life savings of 1 million dollars in this ordeal. Her money was spent on mansions, cars, resort vacations, and expensive jewellery for some of A&O’s top leaders. Whitaker, who is a counsellor and teacher, said she worked up to 3 jobs at a time, and spent 40 years living carefully, in order to funds to aid her only son who suffered from medical problems. A weeping Whitaker testified that, “I earned money the old-fashioned way – I worked for it. That is why this is such a horrendous and difficult event for me.”
After her son Ryan passed away, she was planning to use the A&O investment to fund a charity foundation in his honour. When she learned that A&O was a scam, she said “It’s been four years, seven months and 28 days since I lost my son and I cry every day because I can’t leave the legacy for him that I wanted. It was like taking Ryan away from me again.’
Neil MacBride, U.S. Attorney, attended the sentencing trail and stated that 60 years was a reasonable punishment for the crimes. He claims that cases like this one put a human face to otherwise detached financial crimes. MacBride also noted that some of the victims spent their entire lives saving up to $50,000, and the A&O staff spent up to that much each month on credit card purchase alone.
