7-14-2025 4:35am

Owings Mills Couple

Owings Mills Couple Sentenced for Roles in $20-Million Insurance Fraud Scheme

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow sentenced James William Wilson, Jr., 78, and his wife, Maureen Ann Wilson, 77, both of Owings Mills, Maryland, to federal prison for their roles in connection with an insurance fraud scheme.

James Wilson received 12 years for 13 counts of fraud, three counts of money laundering, two counts of filing false tax returns, and one count of aggravated identity theft. Maureen Wilson was sentenced to four years for one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, four counts of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, one count of money laundering, and two counts of filing a false return. Both were ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $18,705,520.30 and the Court entered a forfeiture order including over $14.8 million in seized funds.

Kelly O. Hayes, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, announced the sentence with Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Karen E. Kelly of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, and Special Agent in Charge Kareem A. Carter, IRS Criminal Investigation – Washington, D.C. Field Office.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, the Wilsons conspired to defraud life-insurance companies by securing more than 40 life-insurance policies. The scheme included mispresenting policy applicants’ health, wealth, and existing life-insurance coverage. Total death benefits from these policies exceeded $20 million.

Additionally, James Wilson, a former Maryland life insurance broker, defrauded individual investors to receive funds that he used to pay premiums on the fraudulently obtained life-insurance policies. The Wilsons concealed the fraud by transferring the proceeds to multiple bank accounts, including accounts in the name of trusts. Then the Wilsons filed false individual income-tax returns for 2018 and 2019, which concealed the fraudulent proceeds from each year, approximately $5.7 million and $2 million, respectively.

After obtaining the policies, the Wilsons used forged signatures to make themselves, and other nominees they controlled, the owners and beneficiaries of the life insurance policies. Maureen Wilson also impersonated other people when speaking with the life insurance companies.

The IRS-CI investigated the case, with assistance from the Maryland Insurance Administration and the Maryland Office of The Attorney General.

U.S. Attorney Hayes commended the IRS-Criminal Investigation Division for its work in the investigation. Ms. Hayes also thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew P. Phelps and Philip Motsay and Trial Attorneys Shawn Noud and Richard Kelley, who prosecuted the federal case. Ms. Hayes also thanks Trial Attorney Stephanie Williamson, from the Department of Justice’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, who assisted with the forfeiture proceedings.