St. Paul Man Pleads Guilty to Filing False Insurance Claim for Purportedly Stolen Art

MINNEAPOLIS—Today in federal court, a 39-year-old St. Paul man pleaded guilty to filing a false insurance claim for $250,000. On August 6, 2012, Jason William Sheedy was charged via an information with one count of wire fraud in connection to this incident. He entered his plea today before United States District Court Judge Susan Richard Nelson.

In his plea agreement, Sheedy admitted that between September 2007 and December 2011, he devised a scheme to obtain money from the AXA Art Insurance Corporation (“AXA”) through fraud. AXA is an insurance company that insures artwork and items of historical value. In September of 2007, Sheedy insured several items, including artwork, with the company. Then, on September 27, 2007, he filed an insurance claim for $274,905, reporting that some of the insured pieces, including several works of art, had been stolen from a moving van. On January 28, 2008, pursuant to that claim, AXA mailed Sheedy a check for $254,832. Even so, on May 24, 2011, Sheedy listed six of the reportedly stolen paintings on Artbrokerage.com, an Internet website for a Nevada auction house. A December 2011 search of Sheedy’s residence yielded all but one of the art pieces reported stolen.

Sheedy also admitted filing a false claim with the Farmer’s Insurance Company in September 2007. That claim, purportedly for stolen household items valued at $93,302, was paid on February 12, 2008.

This case is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Lola Velazquez-Aguilu and Benjamin F. Langner.