Former Alabama Insurance Executive Goff Sentenced to 12 Years

June 4, 2009

A former Montgomery, Alabama insurance executive has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for mail fraud and embezzlement in his insurance business.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson imposed the sentence on John Goff and ordered him to pay $5 million in restitution to XL America insurance company.

Goff was once a major supplier of workers’ compensation insurance in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia.

A federal court jury convicted him in February of mail fraud, embezzlement and filing a false report with the state insurance department.

During the two week trial, prosecutors told the federal jury that Goff stole millions to finance a lavish lifestyle.

Defense attorneys said Goff was indicted for what they said was simply a business dispute with two subsidiaries of XL America Corp.

Federal prosecutors accused him of fraudulently collecting workers’ compensation insurance premiums for two subsidiaries of XL America and not sending the company $4.5 million in premiums. They also accused him of lying to the state insurance department about his company’s background.

Goff’s company, the Goff Group, once had more than 200 employees in a large office building in Montgomery. The company sold policies for Greenwich Insurance Co. and XL Specialty Insurance of Stamford, Conn.

Goff’s lawyers claimed that XL America tried to force him out of business over their dispute over payments, a move they said would have allowed XL America to keep the insurance customers in the Southeast without paying commissions to Goff.