Muscatine Woman Sentenced to Federal Prison for Wire Fraud

DAVENPORT, IA – A Muscatine woman was sentenced on March 8, 2023, to 24 months’ imprisonment for Wire Fraud.

According to court documents, Kimberly Nicole Hollingshed, 37, of Muscatine, intentionally and deliberately defrauded an insurance company under materially false pretenses. In February 2022, Hollingshed accessed her neighbor’s term-life insurance policy and created an online profile for the policy without permission of the neighbor. With online account access, Hollingshed made changes to the victim’s policy and added herself as a policy beneficiary.

The fraud continued in April 2022 when Hollingshed falsely reported the victim died and initiated the process to claim death benefits. In fact, the victim was alive in April 2022 when Hollingshed electronically uploaded and submitted a falsified death certificate to the insurance company and was paid $100,138.87 by the life insurance company. In the same period, Hollingshed used the fraudulent funds to purchase three motor vehicles and other personal property. Hollingshed was ordered to pay restitution and serve three years of supervised release at the conclusion of her prison sentence.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Iowa Insurance Fraud Bureau and the Muscatine Police Department investigated the case.