Longtime Unum Employee Who Embezzled Almost $54,000 Gets Probation After Paying The Money Back

  • Friday, April 23, 2021

A longtime Unum employee who was arrested by federal authorities for embezzling almost $54,000 has gotten three years probation after paying the money back.

Federal Judge Curtis Collier directed that Sandra Jean Weaver also serve 160 hours of community service.

She earlier pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud.

She had been employed by Unum in Chattanooga since January of 1986 and worked as an enrollment specialist II.

The criminal information says, "She was a customer service representative who handled policy administration.

Her duties included updating policies, applying customer payments, and processing loans. She had the authority to transfer funds from company suspense accounts into insurance policies. She entered data in two older, legacy computer systems called CJ.A. and Life 70, systems in which she was considered an expert because of her long-term familiarity with the systems. Her work included name and address changes on policies, changing beneficiaries, loans, and surrenders. These changes were made at the customers' requests. She had personal insurance policies on herself and her family members, which have cash value, so loans could be taken on the policies.  

"Beginning in or about August 2019 and continuing until on or about October 25, 2019, in the Eastern District of Tennessee, the defendant did knowingly devise and intend to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud and to obtain money by false and fraudulent pretenses from UNUM Group in the Eastern District of Tennessee, by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations and promises, and with reckless disregard for the truth of such pretenses, representations and promises, such scheme to defraud and to obtain money by false and fraudulent pretenses being in substance as follows:

"It was a part of the scheme to defraud that the defendant, using the C.I.A. system, utilized external policyholders as a "pass-through." She changed the names of life insurance policyholders and other policy data, and improperly applied money from suspense accounts to the policies, which caused UNUM to issue checks via Provident Life and Accident Insurance Company payable in names similar to her own, or payable to others.

"It was further a part of the scheme to defraud that the defendant sometimes asked the mailroom via email to hold the checks cut using this scheme for her to pick up; sometimes the checks were mailed in the ordinary course of business.

"It was further a part of the scheme to defraud that the defendant when she picked up checks from the mailroom, sometimes negotiated them at the branch of a local bank or credit union. It was further a part of the scheme to defraud that the defendant, when she picked up checks from the mailroom, sometimes sent the checks via FedEx to others.

"It was further a part of the scheme to defraud that the defendant used the Life 70 system to divert funds from personal policy loans - during the time frame of the scheme, the defendant's policies had existing loan balances.

"It was further a part of the scheme to defraud that the defendant moved money from UNUM suspense accounts and applied it to her and her family members' policies as loan payments. She paid off existing loans with fraudulent payments from the suspense account so she could issue a new loan off the policies.

"It was further a part of the scheme to defraud that the defendant took the money she obtained from these new loans, converted it to cash, and then sent the money to others via FedEx.

"It was further a part of the scheme to defraud that the defendant embezzled from UNUM Group (as part of the overall scheme with the two subschemes) approximately $53,910.19." 

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