After pleading guilty to embezzlement Friday, the former president of Cosmopolitan Life Insurance Co. will spend one year and a day in federal prison, according to court documents.
John Mathis Lile III, 56, also the former president and chief executive officer of Advanced Insurance Brokerage of America Inc., was charged last year with using a company-issued credit card to charge more than $300,000 over a three-year span for personal expenses, including Hannah Montana tickets and family vacations to Las Vegas; Destin, Fla.; and Italy.
Lile of Little Rock was facing two counts of theft or embezzlement in connection with health care. But as part of the plea agreement, federal prosecutors dropped one count. Lile appeared Friday before U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright.
Lile also will pay full restitution to Cosmopolitan Life Insurance Co.
A federal grand jury handed up an indictment on Lile in April 2013 after a joint FBI and U.S. Labor Department investigation.
Cosmopolitan, which no longer exists, sold and managed self-insurance health care plans for small businesses. Advanced Insurance Brokerage of America acted as an intermediary between the small businesses and Cosmopolitan by filing and paying health care claims for the small businesses. The intermediary also collected insurance premiums and solicited businesses, according to the indictment.
The indictment states that Lile, who had American Express credit cards in the name of Advanced Insurance Brokerage of America, used the cards to pay for more than $300,000 in personal expenses between March 2006 and February 2009. Lile used the money for family vacations, restaurant supplies, cruises, tanning, Hannah Montana tickets, shopping and other items, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney's office in the Eastern District of Arkansas.
Metro on 09/20/2014