On 11 January 2018, Scott C. Blader, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced insurance fraud charges against 40-year-old Scott Reaston, an Australian citizen living in Madison, Wisconsin. The indictment charges Reaston with seven counts of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud and two counts of money laundering. Reaston was arrested that day by IRS criminal investigators.

        The indictment alleges that Reaston submitted false insurance claims under the Parcel Insurance Plan (PIP), which provides insurance against loss or damage arising from the delivery of parcels via USPS and private carriers. From February 2013 to July 2015, Reaston filed more than $480,000 in false claims with PIP, for which he received a total of $364,183 in payouts.

        The indictment also alleges that Reaston created multiple accounts with different usernames on Stamps.com, used those accounts to buy postage for parcels, and purchased shipping insurance for those parcels through PIP. Reaston then filed PIP claims asserting that mobile phones he sold on the Amazon platform had been lost, damaged or short-circuited in transit. As part of the fraudulent scheme, Reaston also forged various documents - including invoices, purchase orders and fake correspondence with fictitious customers - to support his claims.

        If convicted of fraud, Reaston faces up to 20 years in federal prison, and up to 10 years for money laundering.

Source: Yuguo.com 2018-01-17