Former QBE Insurance Executive, Consultant Charged with Embezzling $2.6M

By | June 16, 2015

A former QBE Insurance Group Ltd. executive and an accomplice embezzled $2.6 million by submitting phony invoices in which the name of the chief financial officer was forged, according to U.S. prosecutors.

James J. Shea, a former QBE vice president who was responsible for integrating the Australian insurer’s information technology systems, and Eugene Fallon, an outside consultant, defrauded QBE over two years, beginning in January 2012, the U.S. said. QBE isn’t named in the criminal complaint filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court.

“We can confirm that QBE is the company in question, and we are cooperating fully with law enforcement in this matter,” said Amanda Taylor, a spokeswoman for QBE North America.

QBE paid Shea about $1.9 million in salary and bonuses over six years ending in 2013, according to the complaint. He almost doubled that amount, collecting more than $1.8 million from the fraud proceeds, the U.S. said.

Shea’s accused of forging QBE’s chief financial officer’s signature on contracts authorizing payments for sham consulting work to two companies controlled by Fallon.

Of the $2.6 million paid to bank accounts of the Fallon companies, more than $1.8 million was routed back to Shea through his wife’s bank accounts, the U.S. said.

QBE’s chief financial officer, who had to authorize the consulting work, never heard of the companies involved and doesn’t remember any such work being done by them, the U.S. said.

Money Trail

Investigators followed a money trail that linked the two men to the scam, a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent said in court papers. They found bank accounts affiliated with Fallon’s companies and invoices which were submitted to e-mail addresses connected to Shea, the agent said.

During a six-year period beginning in Oct. 2008, Shea and his wife have spent more than $4 million, including paying $1 million in cash for a house, $102,000 in furniture, $38,401 at the Disney Resort and $18,233 at an Apple Store, according to the U.S.

Shea is scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate in Manhattan later Tuesday, court officials said. Lawyers who are representing both men couldn’t be immediately located.

The case is U.S. v. Shea, 15-MAG-1996, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

Topics USA

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Latest Comments

  • April 26, 2016 at 5:15 pm
    tanya says:
    Sloppy deceitfulness with identity fraud spoiled lemonade
  • June 22, 2015 at 12:04 pm
    ExciteBiker says:
    And $38,000 at Disney? Maybe that includes six first class air flights. But sheesh that's a lot of money.
  • June 18, 2015 at 6:00 pm
    InsGuy says:
    Look, I know Apple stuff is expensive, but how do you spend $20K at an Apple store?

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