District Man Sentenced to Three Years in Prison for Defrauding Insurance Company

Defendant Lied to Obtain Life Insurance Policy in the Name of His Dying Brother

WASHINGTON—Roscoe Grant Jr., 58, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to three years in prison on charges stemming from an insurance fraud scheme, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. and James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office.

Grant, a former Ward 7 ANC Commissioner and retired D.C. government employee, was convicted in October 2010 by a jury in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia of conspiracy, mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and insurance fraud. He was sentenced today by the Honorable Judge Ricardo M. Urbina. The judge ordered that Grant be placed on three years of supervised release upon completion of his prison term. During that time, he is to serve 100 hours of community service. Grant also was ordered to pay $33,316 in restitution.

The evidence at trial established that, between December 2004 and February 2006, Grant conspired with others to defraud Transamerica Life Insurance Company. Specifically, he obtained a false life insurance policy in the name of his brother, who was seriously ill at the time, listing himself as the sole beneficiary. The defendant made false representations to Transamerica about his brother's employment status and his ability to work, and also forged his brother's signature to an insurance application form. Grant's brother died from his illness in July 2005.

After his brother's death, Grant helped to generate false documentation to convince Transamerica that his brother had worked for a company with a Transamerica group life insurance policy, and was thereby eligible for insurance. However, Grant knew that this information was false, and that the policy had been obtained under false pretenses. Based on false representations, Transamerica paid the defendant more than $33,000 in insurance benefits.

In announcing today's sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen and Assistant Director McJunkin commended the efforts of the special agent from the FBI's Washington Field Office who worked on the case, as well as Special Agent Anne Thomas of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of the Inspector General's Office of Labor Racketeering & Fraud Investigations, and Senior Financial Fraud Investigator Carl Ditchey of the D.C. Department of Insurance, Securities & Banking, for their work investigating the charges. He also commended the staff of the U.S. Attorney's Office, including Paralegal Specialists Mary Treanor, Tasha Harris, and Maggie McCabe, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Haray, who prosecuted the case.