A Virginia man, who tried to collect nearly $750,000 in life insurance using fake documents detailing his own death, was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Henry E. Hudson, a U.S. District Court judge in Richmond, Va., said Jamie Dwayne Long, 38, of Lunenburg, Va., was involved in a “very, very calculated attempt to defraud the insurance company,” according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch report.
Long admitted to one count of mail fraud in connection with an exchange with the insurance company Aug. 18, 2010. Court documents, cited by the newspaper, show Long impersonated the brother of his ex-wife, the beneficiary on the life insurance policy, when he called the insurance company to report his death from injuries sustained in an auto accident.\
To further the ruse, Long provided his own telephone number to the insurance company as a contact and opened a post office box in Richmond, where the insurer could send claims forms.
Long, who also ordered a seal for the vital records of Prince Edward County from a New Mexico company, blamed his actions on depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as financial problems, a divorce, the death of his father, and his son’s injury injury while riding an all-terrain vehicle, the newspaper reported.
“I was terminally ill with emotional cancer,” Long said, according to the newspaper account. “I’m sentenced to a lifetime of guilt and shame.”
