Scott Dees Sentenced to 51 Months for Fraud Involving Woodmen of the World Life Insurance

United States Attorney Kenyen R. Brown of the Southern District of Alabama announces that defendant Scott Dees of Repton, Alabama, was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $796,000 in restitution to his victims.

Between 2001 and 2011, Scott Dees worked as an independent contractor for Woodmen of the World Life Insurance Company, a fraternal order based in Omaha, Nebraska. During this time period, Dees purported to sell annuities and life insurance policies on behalf of Woodmen to numerous elderly individuals in rural Alabama. However, rather than send the investors’ money to Woodmen, Dees stole nearly $800,000 and spent it on his own personal expenses. A majority of Dees’ victims were elderly, unsophisticated individuals, some of whom were in nursing homes.

In July 2013, Dees pled guilty to a single-count information charging him with operating a mail fraud scheme. At sentencing, several victims told U.S. District Court Judge Granade about how much Dees’ actions have devastated the investors, as well as his own family. After hearing from the victims and Dees, Judge Granade sentenced him to 51 months in federal prison, which was the top end of the advisory guidelines range. Dees had asked for mere home confinement.

U.S. Attorney Kenyen R. Brown was extremely pleased with the result, saying, “Mr. Dees preyed on elderly, unsophisticated victims in rural Alabama. Fraud will never be tolerated, especially in cases like this where the victims were some of the most vulnerable individuals in our community. My office will continue to aggressively prosecute fraud schemes affecting this district, and we will do everything in our power to ensure fraudsters wind up in federal prison.”

This case was investigated by the Monroeville office of FBI-Mobile and was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama.