Man Pleads Guilty To Faking His Own Death For Insurance Payout

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Moldovan Man Admits To Faking His Own Death For Insurance Money

A Moldovan man who resides in Minnesota pleaded guilty to mail fraud after faking his own death so that his wife could collect his $2 million life insurance claim.

54-year-old Igor Vorotinov took out the policy with Mutual of Omaha in March 2010 and named his ex-wife, Irinia Vorotoniv, as his primary beneficiary, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. After that, he allegedly left Minnesota and returned to Moldova.

Fast forward to October of 2011, Moldovan police found the corpse of an adult male on the side of the road in Cojusna, which officials identified as Vorotinov based on documents that were still on the body. Police said he had died of a heart attack and Irina Vorotinov flew in to make a positive identification along with cremating the body, which she then brought back to Minnesota.

According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Vorotinov actually moved to Transnistria in the meantime to live under the name Nikoly Patoka from 2012 up until November 2018. A month after the body was found, Irina Vorotinov submitted a claim with Mutual of Omaha, which paid her $2,048,414.09 on March 23, 2012.

Allegedly knowing that her husband was still alive the whole time, she “recruited” a third party to open a local bank account where she deposited the money, then transferred $1.5 million of it to her son’s account.. Between March 2012 and January 2015, the money was distributed around accounts across Switzerland and Moldova.

Their son, Alkon Vorotinov, also allegedly knew that his father had faked his death. In November 2013, he was stopped by Border Patrol agents in Detroit on his way back from Moldova and during a search, agents found photos of him and his father taken that summer, after his supposed death.

Alkon Vorotinov was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay restitution after pleading guilty to concealing a felony. Irina Vorotinov was sentenced to 37 months in prison in 2016 after pleading guilty to both mail fraud and engaging in a monetary transaction in criminally derived property.

Igor Vorotinov will be sentenced in late July.