On January 11th, a Marshalltown man was sentenced to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to crimes of insurance fraud. Following the EF-3 tornado in 2018 that hit Marshalltown, Timothy Sletten, age 32, engaged in 2 separate schemes to defraud State Farm, the insurer of Sletten’s numerous residential rental properties, including presenting false work invoices for claim benefits. Then again in 2020, after the derecho disaster, Sletten presented false work invoices from contractor alleging he had paid the contractors for repairs to disaster related damage when he had not. As a result of these fraudulent schemes, State Farm paid Sletten loss claim benefits totaling just over $180,000. Sletten was also fined $50,000 and ordered to pay full restitution.
Zach Tomesch, News Director