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Businessman gets three years in jail for bilking company

MADISON — A judge has sentenced a former insurance executive from Janesville to prison time for bilking his company out of more than $1 million in phony claims.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb told Douglas Nickerson on Thursday she was glad he took responsibility for the crime, but chastised him for failing to own up to his gambling addiction.

She sentenced Nickerson to three years and 10 months in prison and ordered him to repay General Casualty Insurance and its insurer more than $1 million. He will report to prison June 1.

Nickerson was charged in federal court in November with misappropriating nearly $800,000 from General Casualty.

As a property manager for General Casualty, he oversaw large property claims, and had check-writing privileges up to $500,000.

He was accused of writing about $800,000 in checks from the company to six others.

The check recipients cashed the checks and kept some of the cash. Nickerson retained about $730,355, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

The scheme ran from June 2003 to September 2006.

Also charged in connection with the crime was David A. Janssen, a general contractor with Heartland Associates.

But Nickerson told a federal Judge Janssen didn’t know the checks were for an illegitimate purpose, and charges were dropped. Instead, Janssen will plead guilty to violating federal tax laws for failing to disclose tax information.