Ohio Man Sentenced to 6 Years for Insurance Fraud

Ohio Department of Insurance Director Mary Jo Hudson announced that Huey Granderson of Millersport, Ohio, will spend more than six years in prison for his involvement in a Fairfield County insurance fraud ring. Granderson was the ring leader of a group that stole more than $3 million from companies in multiple counties.

Judge Richard Berens sentenced Granderson in the Fairfield County Court of Common Pleas to four years in jail for engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, seven years for theft, and 11 months for failure to file an income tax return.

Granderson is currently serving 17 months for a Delaware County theft conviction. Once he has completed that sentence, he will serve the four years for engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and the 11 months for failure to file an income tax return. Once those sentences have been served, Granderson will be released on community control, with the understanding that if he violates that community control, he will serve the seven year theft sentence.

In April 2009, Granderson pled guilty in the Fairfield County Court of Common Pleas to the three charges. As part of the plea agreement, the 14 other charges were dropped.

The Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office began its part of the investigation in July of 2007 when it executed a search warrant and recovered numerous pieces of allegedly stolen equipment on land owned by Granderson.

The Department soon took the lead in investigating more than 15 real estate purchases, 15 motor vehicle purchases that ring members participated in since January of 2006. The Grand Jury found that these real estate and vehicle purchases involved fraud in which the buyers grossly inflated their incomes and submitted bogus federal income tax returns and W-2 forms. The defendants would then make no payments on the mortgages while renting out the properties and keeping the money. They also did not make payments on the vehicles and would switch them between ring members so the finance companies were unable to locate the vehicles to repossess them.

Ring members also continued to steal construction equipment by renting and keeping the equipment, or by obtaining the equipment through the submission of false financial information. Investigators have so far recovered dozens of pieces of stolen construction equipment and stolen vehicles.

Source: Ohio Department of Insurance