Former Insureon finance exec pleads guilty in $6 million fraud

Kevin Mix, former controller of insurtech company Insureon, pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges related to a scheme in which nearly $6 million was diverted into bank accounts controlled by him.

In a plea agreement filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago, Mr. Mix pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years. A lower sentence can be applied if the court determines he accepts personal responsibility for the fraud, court papers say.

According to the plea agreement, as controller of Chicago-based Insureon, Mr. Mix managed the company’s accounting operations, including provisional approval of invoice payments to vendors.

The fraud began around October 2018 when he began rerouting payments for invoices to a bank account he controlled; the scheme escalated in February 2019 when an employee that was leaving the company gave Mr. Mix his access token, username and password to Insureon’s bank account, which Mr. Mix used to complete multiple other fraudulent transfers, court documents say.

“Between October 2018 and June 2020, through approximately 42 wire transfers, Mix fraudulently authorized the disbursement of approximately $5,845,427,” court papers say.

Mr. Mix agreed to repay the funds and to the forfeiture of various property he bought with the money. Prosecutors allege the property subject to forfeiture includes various real estate holdings, a Mercedes GT63C4, two gold bars and diamond jewelry.

Insureon declined to comment on the case.