Punjab-origin woman, daughter get jail for insurance fraud bid in US

NEW YORK: An Indian-origin woman and her daughter were sentenced to prison for conspiring to burn down their convenience store to fraudulently obtain insurance proceeds.

Manjit Singh, 49, and her daughter Harpneet Bath, 27, a resident of British Columbia, Canada, were sentenced in federal court in Kentucky to 18 months and 9 months in prison respectively by US district court judge David Bunning.

In her plea agreement, Singh admitted to offering a confidential informant USD 5,000 in January 2020 to burn down the convenience store she owned and operated in Kentucky. Singh intended to burn down the store for collecting insurance proceeds, prosecutors said.

Singh acknowledged instructing the informant on how she wanted the arson to be performed, and promised him that he would receive USD 1,000 up front, and the remaining USD 4,000 after she received the insurance proceeds from the fraudulent claim of fire loss.

In their plea agreements, both admitted that they met with the informant on the eve of the planned arson. At that meeting, Bath gave him USD 900 in cash and obtained his bank account information.

Law enforcement officers disrupted the plot before the arson was committed.