A Dallas man federal prosecutors said was the architect of a nearly $5 million insurance fraud scheme was sentenced Thursday to more than 13 years in prison and ordered to pay restitution, according to court records.
Last June, Jordan Ford, 32, was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and pleaded guilty three months later. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman sentenced him to 157 months in prison and ordered him to pay about $4.47 million to the defrauded insurance companies.
Public defenders appointed to represent Ford did not immediately return a message Thursday afternoon seeking comment on the sentence, which can be appealed.
Ford and eight eight people he colluded with — all of whom have pleaded guilty to charges for their roles in the scheme — recruited insurance company employees to supply them with clients’ personal information. They then passed the stolen data to Ford, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.
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Ford would then use the information to pose as clients and request they update the payment information to accounts Ford and his people controlled, according to court records.
In some cases, Ford paid insurance employees to give him access to their company-issued laptops. He then logged into the companies’ systems, authorized payments and issued funds to accounts he controlled, according to court records.
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The scheme misdirected funds from at least three insurance companies, totaling more than $4.4 million. Those companies, all described as “large” insurance companies operating in the U.S., are not named in the criminal complaint detailing the charge against Ford.
All nine defendants charged in the scheme have pleaded guilty to a charge as part of the investigation, according to the district attorney news release.
The release states that includes Humberto Corona, Jaquan Hall, and Elexis McClain, who recruited insurance employees and handled fraudulent proceeds.
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It also includes insurance employees Timothy Starling, Desiree Thomas, Daja Webb, and Sesedrick Wedlow — all of whom were paid for providing stolen client information and granting Ford access to company systems, the release says.
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After the sentencing, Ford was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals. As of Thursday afternoon, he was being held at the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, according to Federal Bureau of Prisons records.
Corona, 34; Hall, 25; McClain, 22; Starling, 30; Thomas, 33; Webb, 29; and Wedlow, 42, remained in federal custody as of Thursday, the prison records show.
Dallas man gets 13 years in prison for masterminding nearly $5M insurance fraud scheme
