Thursday, March 25, 2010

Janesville Man Sentenced to 46 Months for Misappropriating Funds from General Casualty

March 25, 2010 - MADISON, WI—Stephen P. Sinnott, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Douglas A. Nickerson, 45, Janesville, Wis., was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Madison to 46 months in federal prison, without parole. Nickerson previously pleaded guilty to willfully misappropriating money belonging to General Casualty of Sun Prairie, Wis. Chief Judge Barbara B. Crabb also ordered Nickerson to pay $1,033,306.08 in restitution.

During the time period covered by the indictment—June 2003 through July 2008—Nickerson was employed by General Casualty as a Property Program Manager. In this position, Nickerson's duties included providing oversight on large property claims and directly handling many of the largest property claims covered by General Casualty.

As part of his scheme to misappropriate money from General Casualty, Nickerson used other individuals to conceal fraudulent payments in large, otherwise legitimate insurance claim files. He directed that checks be drawn by General Casualty to other individuals; he then provided these checks to the other individuals, each of whom kept a portion of the funds and returned the majority of the funds to Nickerson.

The court found that Nickerson misappropriated a total of $1,033,306.08. Of this total amount misappropriated, Nickerson retained approximately $730,000.

United States Attorney Sinnott stated that today's sentencing was the result of an investigation conducted by the Madison Resident Agency of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with the assistance of General Casualty staff. The prosecution of the case has been handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney John W. Vaudreuil.

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