DENVER-
An insurance company filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday accusing a prominent Denver minister and four of his affiliated church groups of obtaining hundreds of thousands of dollars by filing fraudulent life-insurance claims on behalf of parishioners.
AIG Life Insurance Co. alleged pastor Acen Phillips and other defendants obtained a group-life insurance policy on behalf of up to 316 people and falsified paperwork to ensure that the bulk of any claims payments would go to them, not surviving family members of those who were covered.
Phillips’ attorney, Gary Lozow, in a statement said AIG “hired an ex-prosecutor to bully Bishop Phillips” and the response to the civil allegations will be made in court. Before the lawsuit was filed, Lozow said Phillips denied wrongdoing.
The insurance company paid seven claims filed in 2005 and 2006 for $638,131, more than half of which went to Phillips and the other defendants, the lawsuit said. The defendants have filed five other claims seeking $450,000, half of which would go to the defendants, the lawsuit said.
It was unclear who represented the other defendants: American Church United, Mount Gilead Baptist Church, Mount Gilead Baptist Church Youth Job Mart and New Birth Temple of Praise Community Baptist Church.
The lawsuit said AIG issued the group-life policy based on Phillips’ statements that it would cover Baptist ministers employed full-time by their churches.
But the defendants signed up congregants for insurance coverage and altered beneficiary forms so they, rather than surviving family members, would receive more insurance proceeds, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said AIG terminated the group-life policy Nov. 30, 2006, after paying seven claims.
Phillips also is under investigation by the Colorado attorney general’s office, said spokesman Nate Strauch. He would not comment on the nature of the investigation.
