Iowa Man Sentenced for Disaster-Related Insurance Fraud

An Iowa man was sentence last week to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to crimes of insurance fraud.

Timothy Daryle Sletten, age 32, of Marshalltown, was sentenced on January 11, 2024. The charges against Sletten stem from an investigation by the Iowa Insurance Division’s Fraud Bureau that began in January 2021.

Sletten engaged in two separate schemes to defraud the insurer of his numerous residential rental properties. In 2018, following the EF-3 tornado that hit Marshalltown, he presented false work invoices for claim benefits. After a derecho hit Iowa in the summer of 2020, Sletten again presented false work invoices from contractors alleging he had paid the contractors for repairs for disaster-related damage to his rental homes when in fact he had not done so.

As a result of these fraudulent schemes, Sletten’s insurer, State Farm, paid Sletten loss claim benefits totaling over $180,000. Following his 2020 claim, State Farm opened an internal investigation that caused the company to deny payment of disaster-related claims made by Sletten.

Sletten was ordered to pay $125,003.68 in restitution and a fine of $50,000. Following his prison sentence, Sletten will be required to serve a three-year term of federal supervised release.

Source: Iowa Insurance Division