A former New York Life broker who manipulated a 72-year-old woman he was advising on more than $1.3 million has been sentenced to 11 years behind bars.
Furman Alexander Ford, 52, has been condemned to 132 months in prison for 11 counts of mail fraud, 11 counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated impersonation in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
The man from Raleigh, North Carolina was convicted by a federal jury in March 2021. According to court documents, the elderly Ford client inherited real estate valued at $1.3 million in October 2013, and he helped sell the property.
Ford worked as an insurance and financial agent at New York Life, and the victim was her main client while employed at the company, according to court documents.
Ford also oversaw the creation of a charitable annuity trust with New York Life using proceeds from the sale of $1,395,747.68. Court documents indicate that the woman’s financial agent, Ford, wrote and submitted withdrawal letters from the client’s annuity account to pay for certain expenses.
But in August 2018, the FBI and the US Postal Inspection Service opened an investigation into a complaint that Ford was stealing from the woman. Investigators quickly found 20 separate fraudulent withdrawal letters written by Ford throughout 2014 and submitted to New York Life on behalf of its client.
Court documents say Ford sent the letters from his North Carolina office and the demands in the correspondence ranged from $5,000 to $45,000. When shown the documents, the woman Ford was advising said she had never seen or approved of the withdrawals.
Federal investigators determined that the fraudulent letters led to Ford stealing more than $376,000 from the woman and placing that money in her personal checking account to buy a BMW, Rolex watches, and firearms; cover their child support payments; and take a cruise to the Bahamas.
In December 2014, Ford withdrew an additional $1 million from his client’s annuity account, and those funds were also used to support his luxury lifestyle.
During the investigation, Ford’s longtime girlfriend told officers that he confessed to stealing from his client and that he “jumped his fence to avoid federal investigators knocking on his door”, according to court documents.
Ford personally spoke to federal agents in April 2019. According to court documents, during the interview Ford admitted to using a copy of the customer’s signature recorded on his tablet to make payments to his personal bank account. .
Ford then claimed that the customer was making an investment in a business he owned outside of New York Life.
In handwritten letters and court motions submitted from prison and prior to his sentencing, Ford alleged that the victim, witnesses and investigators provided false and contradictory evidence.
Ford accused the government of “error in grand jury procedure, prosecutorial misconduct and insufficiency of indictment, and constitutional violations,” according to a motion to dismiss all charges. This motion was defeated.
“This case has cost [the] defendant a 30-year career in finance,” the filing states. “Once recognized in his community for his charitable work, he is now branded a financial predator by the government.”
In a statement, New York Life executives said they “have cooperated fully with the appropriate authorities throughout this process and have reimbursed the victim for his losses.”
Ford’s affiliation with New York Life ran from 2007 to 2015. Prior to that, it had warrants with five other companies dating back to 1989. According to BrokerCheck, there were three judgments or liens against Ford totaling $9,356 between 2008 and 2010.
This theft isn’t the only criminal case with Ford at its center. In October 2020, he was charged in a still pending case that was part of largest health care fraud and opioid enforcement action in the history of the Department of Justice.
Prosecutors allege that another Ford-owned company, the Integrated Alliance for Managed Healthcare, submitted bogus health insurance claims totaling $243,000 between October 2018 and February 2020.
Ford said the company provided mental health services to 73 recipients through telephone appointments. The case was part of a nationwide fraud operation in fall 2020 accusing 345 people of misrepresenting $6 billion, about $4.5 billion of which related to telemedicine.
The health care fraud indictment further alleges that Ford and others collected Medicare information on unsuspecting beneficiaries by marketing telehealth services and electronic records services, resulting in the exchange of information on Medicare beneficiaries.
Ford is also accused of offering food in exchange for Medicare beneficiary information through the Integrated Alliance for Managed Healthcare Foundation. According to court documents, Medicare paid Ford about $163,271.74 because of the fraudulent claims.
Ford’s co-conspirator in the case – Jimmy Guess of Greensboro – pleaded guilty to his involvement as a consultant for the Ford company.
In a handwritten request Ford filed Jan. 27, he asked for the continuation of a jury trial that was scheduled to begin Jan. 31. In the letter, Ford said he tested positive for COVID-19 on Jan. 17 while being held at Pamlico County Detention. Center.
Ford said the facility has been under quarantine since early December. He asked for an extension of at least 60 days, saying the lockdown and his positive COVID diagnosis hampered his ability to prepare for trial.
Ford’s request has been granted and the trial is now due to begin on the morning of May 23.
Attempts to contact Ford’s attorney for comment were unsuccessful.
