COMMITTEE TO ADDRESS INSURANCE FRAUD EXPOSES A SELECTIVE BLIND EYE OF STATE LEADERS REGARDING ENFORCEMENT
According to data presented at the inaugural meeting on Wednesday, October 29th insurance fraud is a white-collar crime that costs every South Carolinian over the age of 18 nearly $1200 annually. Towards to the goal of improving the identification and prosecution of this staggeringly expensive fraud, a new ad hoc subcommittee of the Committee for Legislative Oversight was formed under the Chairmanship of local State Representative Jeff Johnson (R-Horry).
Insurance Fraud Defined
By deliberately deceiving the insurance company, customers may inflate or “pad” the value of items such as home contents, misrepresent the time and nature of damage, and even stage accidents and disasters in order to obtain an unearned, illegitimate, and illegal financial reward that can be categorized as a felony, depending on the amount of the claim.
State Responsibility
Nine South Carolina agencies are involved in investigating insurance fraud, but the lion’s share of funding to help identify, prosecute, and ideally deter this white-collar crime, is given to the Department of Insurance and SLED. Though both agencies were prepared to provide status reports to the legislators, they would first hear from a citizen hurt by their incompetence and/or “selective enforcement of laws.” And she would not pull punches.
As a victim of alleged insurance fraud herself, Lee Granade exposed the willful neglect of these agencies to investigate a ~ $1.1M arson for insurance scheme in Beaufort County for someone with ‘powerful’ connections. As she named the directors in attendance who apparently enabled this expensive crime upon South Carolina citizens, she also brought receipts.
In what must have been an incredibly humbling and excoriating experience for the newly installed Department of Insurance on the row immediately behind the lectern, Director Michael Wise (left), the Director of Insurance Fraud Investigations Joshua Underwood, as well as SLED Chief Mark Keel, Lee explained how her case appears to have been done with the FULL KNOWLEDGE and PERMISSION of Chief Keel, Director Wise, and Mr. Underwood. She then provided the documentation to show that she had not alleged anything that was not verifiable and factual.
WHISTLE-BLOWER SAYS ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
As previously reported (Hilton Head mom crushed by S.C. Family Court System MyrtleBeachSC News), the heartbreaking, unfathomable judgments in Lee’s Beaufort County Family Court cases that left her essentially homeless with limited access to her children along with a looming threat of incarceration (regarding the fees of Guardian ad litem, Katherine G. Ferguson, Esq), were all set in motion by Judge Mindy Zimmerman. Though abolished years ago and banned by our state and federal constitutions, the threat of a ‘debtor’s prison’ is real and utilized routinely in SC family courts; see our article on the ‘honorable’ Mandy Kimmons imposing this recently with a little help from her friend, Judge Holly Wall: Mother jailed for unpaid legal fees to former S.C. Representative, then Lawyer, now Judge MyrtleBeachSC News
In Lee’s family court cases, she was advised (in recorded conversations) that her 2019 verdict was predetermined via her ex-husband’s USC Law connections dating back to the 1970s, i.e, the Murdaughs and his “good friends” such as Robert Achurch, Esq., Beaufort County attorney. To the pure shock of those in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting, Lee detailed her ex-husband’s apparent scheme to intentionally set fire to their home, take 100% of the insurance proceeds (presumably to recover financially from the legal fees and/or payoffs he owed), and all this would be condoned by Chief Keel and the other directors in attendance. Lee has even been under a ‘cease and desist’ order from Keel’s General Counsel Whitesett because she asked for updates in the investigation she was statutorily entitled – and the Committee heard her loud and clear.
What makes moms like Lee a formidable foe for those tempted to linger in the fountain of public corruption is that they usually have copious records having been through the wringer in family courts. We have obtained a copy of the handouts that Lee provided the Committee; and it is a damning case report of all that is wrong with the Palmetto State.
Lee has been denied an arson investigation AND an insurance fraud investigation despite statements from a chairman of the International Association of Arson Investigators (IAAI) declaring that all available evidence strongly implicates Robert Jimenez (Lee’s ex-spouse) as the originator of the fire. She also provided an affidavit of a Certified Public Accountant/Certified Fraud Examiner (CPA/CFE), which stated unequivocally that Jimenez had engaged in mail/wire fraud, insurance fraud, and likely forgery as well.
Perhaps most gut-wrenching in her testimony was Lee’s account of her subpoenaing the local pet shelter (on a tip) because she knew that her daughter was distraught over the loss of her cat who she believed had perished in the house fire. The subpoena results indicated that her ex-husband had surrendered their daughter’s cat just hours after he had sent her away for the weekend on Friday, January 17, 2020; she would return Sunday evening to flames and flashing lights. It is rumored that Lee’s daughter’s cat was not liked by Jimenez’s new wife’s cat (who made it out of the fire unscathed). Not only are these details in her handouts, but SLED has had this information for nearly a year. For a house fire that damaged three homes, on a waterfront peninsula, in Moss Creek Plantation in Hilton Head, that nearly killed their then 11-year-old son who had been left alone by his father and his current wife.
There will undoubtedly be much more to unfold in Lee’s quest to hold SLED, Chief Keel, and others accountable – with receipts. Watch Lee’s full testimony here that begins at approximately 3 minutes into the meeting: https://www.scstatehouse.gov/video/archives.php?key=13497&part=1