Forsyth woman sentenced for insurance fraud [Billings Gazette, Mont.]

Jan. 4—A Forsyth woman was sentenced Thursday to 51 months in prison for defrauding customers through her insurance brokerage business to finance her alcohol and gambling addictions.

Kileen Moria Hagadone, 57, pleaded guilty in August to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. She could have been sentenced to as little as two years — the minimum sentence for identity theft — but District Judge Susan Watters included 27 additional months for wire fraud.

In her decision, Watters referenced that Hagadone had defrauded Chief Dull Knife College and called her crimes "fairly egregious."

Hagadone had operated an insurance brokerage business for 30 years, receiving payments from her customers and transmitting them to national insurance companies.

But in 2020, she stopped sending customer payments to the insurance companies, instead spending them on personal expenses.

"These were people she knew, people who had known her for years," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Colin M. Rubich at the sentencing.

Many of Hagadone's customers paid the entire cost of the insurance premium when their policies began, but Hagadone would then arrange to pay the premiums in installments so that she did not have to give the entire payments over to the insurance companies immediately.

When she could not to pay in installments directly with the company, she would impersonate customers so that she could contract with third-party insurance financing companies.

Because she was often unable to pay the installment payments, customers often had their policies canceled.

One of her largest customers was Chief Dull Knife College.

In November 2021, CDKC paid Hagadone $91,883, the full cost of the insurance premium for a year. Hagadone then forged the signature of a CDKC representative to contract with a financing company. The policy was terminated in April 2022 after she failed to pay the installments.

In November 2022, Hagadone told CDKC that they needed to renew their policy. This time, she fabricated a $98,893 policy and embezzled the entire payment, leaving CDKC uninsured from April 2022 to April 2023.

Local Forsyth businessowner Dave Ofalt, a customer of Hagadone's for 20 years, attended the sentencing. He had paid an insurance policy for his business and truck in full, after which he received a notice of monthly payments due.

When he asked the insurance company for a copy of the paperwork, he saw a "girly" signature that was not his own.

"She had many copies of my signature," he said. "She at least could've done a better job faking it."

Ofalt was pleasantly surprised by the sentencing.

"Everyone in town thought she'd get two years," he said.

Hagadone was released from the James F. Battin Federal Courthouse Thursday morning and will self-surrender once she is assigned to a prison.

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