Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor
David Samson, Attorney General
Peter C. Harvey, Director, Division of Criminal Justice
Greta Gooden Brown, Insurance Fraud Prosecutor

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Paul Loriquet (609) 292-4791

June 28, 2002

TRENTON - Attorney General David Samson today announced that a licensed funeral director was sentenced to State prison for fraudulently obtaining life insurance policies and attempting to file and obtain insurance benefits in excess of $1.2 million.

According to Peter C. Harvey, First Assistant Attorney General and Director of the Division of Criminal Justice, William Conyers, 58, of Humphrey St., Englewood, was sentenced by Bergen County Superior Court Judge Patrick J. Roma to 11 years in state prison, and fined $10,000. Conyers’ wife Mollie, 57, will be sentenced on August 6. The disposition of Conyers’ criminal case will be referred to the Board of Mortuary Services for appropriate action with respect to his Funeral Director’s license.

Director Harvey noted that the Conyers’, as well as licensed insurance agent, L.C. Thomas, 51, of Hico Drive, Baker, Louisiana, were indicted by a State Grand Jury on Aug. 15, 2001. The 11 count indictment charged the defendants with attempted theft (2nd degree), falsifying records (4th degree), forgery (4th degree) and witness tampering. The Conyers’ were convicted on May 7, 2002, following a 17 day jury trial held before Judge Roma. The criminal case regarding Thomas remains pending in Bergen County Superior Court.

The indictment charged that William Conyers, Mollie Conyers, and L.C. Thomas falsified the life insurance applications on various dates between May 10, 1994 and Nov. 26, 1999. The life insurance policies were not paid because the two insurance companies became aware that the life insurance applications were falsified. However, the several falsified policies represented life insurance benefits in excess of $1.2 million. As a result of the jury trial conviction, William Conyers was found guilty of two counts of attempted theft by deception, one count of witness tampering, four counts of falsifying records and two counts of forgery. The jury found Mollie Conyers guilty of one count of attempted theft by deception.

The investigation determined that William Conyers is a licensed funeral director who owned and operated the Conyers Funeral Home located in Hackensack, Bergen County. His wife, Mollie, vice-president of Conyers Funeral Home, assisted in operating the funeral home business. The indictment charged the Conyers’ with falsifying several life insurance applications submitted to the American National Insurance Company and the Lincoln Benefit Life Insurance Company.

According to the grand jury indictment, the life insurance applications were false in that they represented to the insurance companies that the persons whose lives were insured did not have preexisting medical conditions when, in fact, those persons did have preexisting medical conditions such as the AIDS virus. By concealing the fact that the persons whose lives were insured had the AIDS virus, the indictment charged that Conyers attempted to deceive the insurance companies into issuing life insurance policies that they would not ordinarily issue had they known of the preexisting medical condition of the persons whose lives were insured.

Additionally, the life insurance applications were fraudulent in that they represented that the beneficiaries of the life insurance policies had an "insurable interest" in the lives of the persons who were insured. An insurable interest essentially means that the life insurance beneficiary has either a familial or economic interest in the life of the person who is insured, so that when the person whose life is insured dies, the beneficiary can be paid the proceeds of the life insurance policy. Without such an insurable interest, a person cannot obtain a life insurance policy on the life of another. In this case, the Conyers falsified the life insurance applications by naming persons, including members of the Conyers family, as beneficiaries when such beneficiaries had no insurable interest in the lives in the persons who were insured.

Supervising State Investigator Philip Larkin and State Investigator Thomas Harrington of the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor were the lead investigators in this case. They were assisted by State Investigators Robert Stemmer, Darrell Washington, Ronald Williams, Brian Haggerty, Anthony Luyber, Joseph Luccarelli, Lisa Lenox, and Civil Investigator George Meyers, Sr. Deputy Attorney General Lewis Korngut prosecuted the case at trial and represented the Division of Criminal Justice - Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor at the sentencing hearing.

"This was a very serious case where a licensed funeral home operator, his wife, and a licensed insurance agent deliberately attempted to defraud insurance companies by falsely obtaining life insurance policies so that they could collect monies that they were not entitled to," said Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden Brown. "The jury’s verdict and the sentence imposed should send a message that fraud of this nature simply cannot be tolerated."

Noting that some important cases have begun with anonymous tips from the public, Prosecutor Brown encouraged New Jersey residents concerned about insurance cheating and who have information about insurance fraud to contact the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor toll-free hotline at 1-877-55-FRAUD, or visit the web site at www.NJInsurancefraud.org .