Two men identified as the masterminds of a defunct health insurance operation that allegedly bilked more than $20 million from their victims nationwide have been indicted and arrested on theft and money-laundering charges in connection with the case.
Bart S. Posey Sr. of Springfield and Richard H. “Rick” Bachman Jr. of Austin, Texas, are charged with conspiracy to commit theft in excess of $60,000, theft of $225,000 and money laundering. They were indicted last week by a Robertson County grand jury, according to Assistant District Attorney General Dent Morriss in Springfield.
The charges, which are Class B and C felonies that carry jail terms of up to 12 years, are related to money the state alleges that Posey and Bachman diverted from their companies, Springfield-based Smart Data Solutions and the American Trade Association, after they were shut down in March 2010 by the Tennessee Department of Insurance, Morriss said.
Bachman was taken into custody Tuesday evening by Travis County, Texas, sheriff’s deputies who had staked out his Austin home, and Posey turned himself in at the Robertson County Sheriff’s Office in Springfield on Wednesday, Morriss said.
Posey is being held at the Montgomery County jail in Clarksville pending a bond hearing, which has not yet been scheduled, and Bachman is being held in the Travis County jail pending extradition to Tennessee, Morriss said.
As for Posey, “The court ordered that bail not be set until after a hearing to determine what the source of any bail money would be,” Morriss said. “We don’t want to have him spending his victims’ money.”
Posey and Bachman allegedly arranged for premiums that were still being paid by customers who bought the phony health-insurance policies to be transferred to their own accounts, and turned into cash that they eventually spent.
All of that money, which was collected by a third-party payment processor in Florida, was supposed to have been under the control of a receiver appointed by Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Lyle, who ordered the shutdown of the insurance operation, Morriss said
Source: The Tennessean