COLUMBUS – Three members of a Mason family have pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder nearly $3 million from two fraudulent life-insurance policies taken out on another relative.
Patricia Stevenson, 57, and her daughter Candace Stevenson, 30, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Columbus Thursday to one count of money laundering conspiracy, U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman said.
Mitch G. Stevenson, 53, pleaded guilty on June 28.
According to court documents, Mitch Stevenson bought life insurance policies on a relative in 2009, claiming the relative was healthy, weighed 170 pounds and had an annual income of $133,000 when, in fact, the relative was ill, weighed nearly 400 pounds and was unemployed.
Stevenson knew the applications were fraudulent at the time they were submitted and, when the relative died, Candace and Patricia Stevenson, the beneficiaries of the policies, collected $2.9 million from the insurance companies.
They used the proceeds to buy a 2012 Bentley GT Convertible for approximately $247,000, place a $284,000 down payment on a land contract on a home in Mason, spent approximately $16,000 at World of Decor and another $33,000 at Facet Jewelry.
A federal grand jury indicted the three in June 2017.
Money laundering conspiracy is a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison. As part of the plea, the defendants have agreed to pay the $2.9 million to the victim life insurance company and forfeit the home in Mason to the federal government, Glassman said.