Former SP insurance agent guilty of fraud

A former Severna Park resident and insurance agent has been sentenced to more than 10 years in federal prison for perpetrating a $535 million insurance fraud scheme.

A federal judge on June 22 also ordered William Raymond Miller, 37, most recently of Howard County, to pay back $22 million in ill-gotten premiums.

Miller has already forfeited several pieces of real estate - including multiple residences in Maryland and Florida - a sports bar in Clarksville and several vehicles and pieces of computer equipment, prosecutors said.

Miller, who lived on Harlequin Lane in Severna Park until about 2004, pleaded guilty on Dec. 8, 2008, in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville, Fla., to one count each of mail fraud and wire fraud.

According to the plea agreement, Miller - who was licensed as an insurance agent in Maryland from 1992 until 2004 - used several corporations from 2005 until April 2008 to sell fraudulent surety bonds on construction projects throughout the United States.

Some of the construction projects were for the U.S. government, including the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Navy and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Prosecutors said Miller acted like he was issuing the surety bonds in the name of legitimate insurers. He issued bonds with a face value of more than $535 million and received more than $22.5 million in premium payments during the course of the fraud.

"White-collar criminals like Mr. Miller are finding out that stealing money by fraud is no different from robbing a bank. You are going to go to prison," said U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida A. Brian Albritton, whose office prosecuted the case. "I commend the agencies that crossed state lines and worked together to uncover this scheme."

U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard sentenced Miller to 10 years and one month in prison.

This case was not the first time Miller got in trouble for mishandling insurance premiums. Miller, who served as the chief operating officer and executive vice president of J.L. Hickman & Co. from at least 1995 through 1997, was sued in 1997 and again in 2000 by two different insurance companies.

The companies alleged Miller would use one person's premium payments to pay another person's premium, letting him skim money off the top.

A Baltimore County Circuit Court judge initially ruled in favor of Miller in 1999, but the Maryland Court of Appeals reversed that finding in 2001.

In his written opinion in 2001, Judge Dale R. Cathell of the Court of Appeals described Miller's actions as a "complex double financing scheme." He said those actions at least constituted "negligence."

The Maryland Insurance Administration ultimately suspended Miller's license in January 2004 after discovering additional instances of mishandled premium payments. At that time, Miller was serving as president of Corporation Risk International, which dealt primarily with African-American-owned funeral homes.

The administration ordered Miller to pay $100,000 in fines. They also ordered Miller, his business partner Donna Mannino and various insurance companies for whom they sold insurance to pay more than $2.1 million in restitution.

Deputy Insurance Commissioner Beth Sammis said Wednesday she does not believe Miller paid his fine nor his portion of the restitution. She did not respond to questions about whether the state would be able to get any of the money now being seized by the federal government.

Still, Sammis praised the federal case, which was built with the help of the Maryland Insurance Administration.

"We applaud Florida for the action it has taken and are pleased Mr. Miller will no longer be able to take advantage of consumers in Maryland and other states," she said.