After a three-day trial before U.S. Chief Judge Shelly D. Dick, a federal jury unanimously convicted Calvin Kemp, age 60, of Gonzales, Louisiana, and Chevez Tywan Robillard, age 33, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, of conspiracy to commit wire fraud along with multiple counts of aggravated identify theft, announced U.S. Attorney Kurt L.
Wall.As the evidence at trial demonstrated, Kemp and Robillard created a scheme to defraud insurance companies. Over several months, they obtained the personal identifiers of three victims without their knowledge and then applied for multiple life and accidental death insurance policies with eight separate insurance providers. In furtherance of this scheme, Kemp and Robillard established companies with the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office, but the companies never did any business. They also opened a bank account identifying themselves as officers of one of the companies.
During the application process, Kemp and Robillard impersonated the victims and fraudulently obtained nine insurance policies worth $4.325 million. Kemp made seven calls to insurance companies and used the stolen identifiers of all three victims while also falsely identifying the victims as musicians and the CEOs of music production companies. Robillard made two calls using the stolen identifiers of two victims and was named as the sole beneficiary in all policies obtained. He submitted claims for insurance benefits on four policies fraudulently issued in the name of one of the victims, who was murdered in Baton Rouge in December 2022.
As a result of their convictions, Kemp faces a sentence in federal prison of up to 26 years, and Robillard faces a sentence of up to 24 years. In addition to the possible terms of imprisonment, both are subject to significant fines and supervised release.U.S. Attorney Kurt L. Wall praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Assistant United States Attorneys M. Patricia Jones and Paul L. Pugliese led the prosecution.