Multimillion-dollar life insurance scam a family affair

A man and his parents have been indicted by a New Jersey grand jury for their alleged $4 million insurance fraud scheme, the Asbury Park Press reported on Friday.

Evan Pescatore, 35, and his parents, Frank Pescatore, 70, and Janice Pescatore, 64, of Asbury Park, New Jersey, are accused of illegally providing people free, high-value life insurance policies to collect the commissions, which they then used to pay off loans that covered the premiums on the policies, according to the newspaper.

The scheme involved 18 policies issued by eight insurance companies totaling $61.5 million, the newspaper reported.

“This family allegedly conspired in a criminal plot to file more than a dozen fraudulent insurance applications that cost numerous insurance companies millions of dollars in ill-gotten commissions, rebates, and free-short-term insurance,” New Jersey Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino said in a statement. “Though the alleged scheme was complicated, the defendants carefully shepherded illicit funds through a series of transactions, knowing that they would reap hundreds of thousands of dollars in undeserved commissions along the way.”

Each family member was charged with first-degree conspiracy to commit money laundering and two-counts of second-degree money laundering, according to the newspaper.