The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals this week affirmed former Georgia Insurance Commissioner Jim Beck’s 2021 conviction in a case that cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary and benefits for the former elected official before he went to trial.
A jury convicted Beck of 37 counts of fraud and money laundering, finding him guilty of orchestrating a scheme to embezzle more than $2 million from the Georgia Underwriting Association, his former employer. Prosecutors said the money helped finance his successful campaign for office in 2018.
U.S. District Judge Mark H. Cohen sentenced Beck to seven years and three months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Cohen, who ordered Beck to pay $2.6 million in restitution, said the former commissioner betrayed people close to him as part of his fraudulent scheme and then repeatedly lied on the witness stand.
The appeals court ruled that Beck’s arguments to overturn the conviction did “not have merit.” But the court agreed with Beck’s attorneys and prosecutors who said the lower court erred in requiring immediate restitution of $358,000 in back taxes, although the federal government will eventually be due the money.
Beck, a onetime head of the Georgia Christian Coalition, was indicted four months after taking office in 1999. He was suspended by Gov. Brian Kemp and drew about $200,000 in salary and benefits a year while awaiting trial. When Beck was indicted, Kemp appointed John King to replace him, so taxpayers were paying the salaries of two commissioners. Once Beck was convicted, the state stopped paying his salary, and King won election to a full term in 2022.
After The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Beck’s salary while under indictment, lawmakers renewed a push to change state law on paying suspended officials facing trial.
Under a constitutional amendment that easily passed in 2022, key state officials and members of the General Assembly will no longer collect their pay if they are indicted on a felony charge related to their performance in office. Officials who are exonerated of felony charges will return to their jobs and receive back pay. Since Beck was indicted and later convicted on charges for things he did before taking office, the change wouldn’t have applied to his case.
The state’s insurance commissioner regulates insurance and small, high-interest loan businesses while also serving as Georgia’s fire marshal. The office plays an important role in deciding how much consumers pay for insurance, particularly car insurance.
