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What do you get when you add three brothers, one ex-wife, a crooked lawyer, and five assorted friends? How about $2.75 million? That’s how much is alleged to have been deposited in offshore bank accounts by these ten crooks, who sold bogus workers’ compensation and truck insurance from their Caribbean hideaway.
Federal indictments filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office allege that the participants in this scam ran a total of 26 fake insurance companies, selling fictitious coverage to businesses and individuals in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
The players are:
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Gerald E. Thornton of Grand Turk Island. Alleged to be the leader of the pack. He is now languishing in a Caribbean jail after being convicted of illegal insurance sales in 1993.
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Richard Thornton of Fort Lauderdale. Gerald’s younger brother who became head honcho after Gerald was arrested.
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John Robert Thornton of New Orleans. This third Thornton brother previously pleaded guilty and was awaiting sentencing.
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Kathy Cochran of Sarasota, Florida. The ex-wife of Gerald Thornton, Kathy pleaded guilty and is also awaiting her sentence.
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Franklin Polk of New Orleans. Polk is the lawyer who set up or purchased the Caribbean companies which were used as fronts to run the business.
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Harold Ernest of Metairie, Louisiana, solicited customers for the insurance scam. He is charged with providing false testimony to the Texas State Board of Insurance about the nature of the business.
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Robert Wright of Milwaukie, Oregon, acted as the front man and helped the businesses avoid payment of the claims.
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Paul Daigle of Biloxi, Mississippi; Mark Johnson of Mandeville, Louisiana; and Donna Purcello of Hanrahan, Louisiana, all previously indicted, pleaded guilty and were awaiting sentencing.
According to the indictments, although the companies involved gave the impression that they were connected with either The Home Insurance Company or The Travelers Insurance Company, no premiums were ever paid to these two companies and no coverage was ever provided. The defendants purposely used the word “Home” in the
title of some of their sham companies to confuse prospective customers. When they were sued by The Home Insurance Company, they simply set up new shell companies. None of the companies was ever licensed to sell insurance.
To conceal the actual set up, the defendants used fictitious names both for themselves and for their sham companies. Bogus addresses, along with mail drops and fake phone numbers helped them to give the impression that the companies were real.
Authorities also sought to recover over $3 million in cash and any proceeds arising from it, along with the computer equipment used to run the businesses.
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