Ex-employee of Carmel firm sentenced for embezzlement
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A former accounting employee for a Carmel-based travel insurance business has been sentenced to almost five years in federal prison after admitting to embezzling more than $2 million from her employer.
Lisa Raines, 52, of Anderson, received the 57-month prison term after pleading guilty to wire fraud, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday. U.S. District Court Judge James Hanlon also ordered Raines to be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for three years following her release from prison and to pay $2.1 million in restitution to her former employer.
Raines was employed by Seven Corners Inc. in Carmel as a senior finance technician from March 2006 until November 2016. Raines was responsible for processing claims and releasing payments for disbursement at Seven Corners and had access to the company’s payments systems.
In her first month in the job, Raines opened a bank account in the name of L&B Tape Co., a business that did not exist, according to investigators. She then entered her fake business as a vendor in the Seven Corners payment system. From 2006 to 2016, Raines made 65 payments from Seven Corners to her fake business, stealing $2,129,689.86 from her employer, investigators said.
Raines used the stolen money for personal uses, including buying a $600,000 house in Anderson in 2011 and acquiring Mardi Gras Too, a former restaurant in Lapel, in 2015.
“The defendant abused her position and took advantage of the trust and confidence placed in her by her employer.” FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Herbert Stapleton said in written remarks. “This sentence clearly demonstrates that those who commit fraud will be caught, prosecuted and held accountable.”
Raines is the third former employee from Seven Corners to be sentenced to federal prison for defrauding the company since 2021—all in unrelated cases.
In May 2021, Wesley A. Smith of McCordsville was sentenced to 47 months in prison and ordered to pay $758,165 in restitution to his former employer after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
According to court filings, Smith and three of his friends conspired to file $499,000 in fraudulent claims on behalf of actual Seven Corners customers from December 2015 to December 2017. Prosecutors said Smith also used a company credit card to make 235 fraudulent transactions to purchase more than $221,000 in airline tickets and hotel stays for himself, family and friends, and diverted six medical-service overpayments worth more than $37,000 into his personal bank account.
The other three defendants—Kamal A. Thomas, Charles R. Williams and Kenneth M. Taylor—received lesser sentences that also included imprisonment and orders of restitution.
In April 2022, Maria Caceres, who was director of the company’s assist department, received a federal prison sentence of 30 months after pleading guilty to wire fraud. Between May 2011 and September 2016, Caceres prepared and submitted thirty fraudulent insurance claims to Seven Corners totaling more than $650.000, investigators say. Caceres created artificial customer accounts and false documents to support of the claims, and Seven Corners paid more than $588,000 to accounts controlled by Caceres’ accomplices to settle them.
Established in 1993 by Jim Krampen and Justin Tysdal, Seven Corners offers trip insurance for both U.S. and international travel, as well as medical insurance for those traveling outside their home country.