Ex-Cincinnati Cop Gets 3 Years For Stealing $188K In Life Insurance Proceeds From Victim Of Alleged Foreclosure Rescue Sale Leaseback Scam

In Cincinnati, Ohio, WCPO-TV Channel 9 reports:

• As a former Cincinnati police officer, Adrian Mitchell understands hierarchy and chain of command. That chain led all the way up to a three-star general of the U.S. Army who [...] accused Mitchell of wrecking the life of the general’s sister. Adrian Mitchell will spend three years in prison after a federal judge sentenced him Wednesday in a scheme to defraud an insurance company. But prosecutors and the general said the scheme was much worse than it sounds.

• Mitchell was a Cincinnati police officer who operated a foreclosure rescue and real estate business on the side. Police say he solicited homeowners having financial problems and offered to buy their houses, which they would then rent from him. If they couldn’t pay, he’d evict them. One of the owners committed suicide. That was the general’s brother-in-law.

• Prosecutors say Mitchell then forged the widow’s name on a life insurance claim form and falsely represented himself to the insurer as a family member, depositing the $188,327 proceeds into his business bank accounts. He pleaded guilty in February to one count of mail fraud and one count of filing a false income tax return.

• On Wednesday, he faced the judge for his sentencing. But first he had to listen as Army Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, one of the top officers at the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington D.C., who recalled the devastation to his sister, who hasn’t recovered after losing her husband, home, and insurance proceeds.

For the story, see Former Police Officer Sentenced To Prison.

For the FBI (Cincinnati Field Office) press release, see: Former Cincinnati Police Officer Sentenced to Three Years Imprisonment for Mail Fraud, Tax Crimes.