One year and a day to serve in prison beginning January 23, 2023
After a six-day trial, a jury found Patrick J. Quinn (“Mr. Quinn”) guilty of two counts of stealing public monies and two counts of making false statements on April 12, 2022. See Agency Checklists’ article of April 13, 2022, “Jury convicts Patrick Quinn of Arlington’s Mr. Quinn Group Ins. of Federal Benefit And Social Security Fraud.” On November 8, 2022, Mr. Quinn was sentenced in the United States District Court for Massachusetts sitting in Boston on his convictions.
Judge Richard G. Stearns of the U.S. District Court gave Mr. Quinn a sentence to serve of one year and one day in prison, followed by one year of supervised release. The judge ordered Mr. Quinn to surrender himself to the Bureau of Prisons by 2 P.M. on January 23, 2023, to begin serving his sentence.
Judge Stearns also ordered Mr. Quinn to pay back the VA $98,940 in restitution and to forfeit the same amount to the United States. No restitution order was entered for the $281,439.00 in SSA benefits Mr. Quinn stole. Mr. Quinn made full restitution to the SSA of this money before his sentencing hearing.
Mr. Quinn’s disability claims began with two traumatic incidents in the Marine Corps
Mr. Quinn enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in July 1991 and served until May 1995.
During his Marine Corps service, Mr. Quinn experienced two traumatic events. First, a friend and sergeant in his unit stepped on a landmine and lost his leg. Mr. Quinn ran to assist the sergeant, who was eventually taken from the scene for medical treatment. Mr. Quinn never learned what happened to him. Second, a close friend of Mr. Quinn’s was participating in a helicopter training activity when the helicopter crashed. When Mr. Quinn got to the helicopter, he found his friend severely wounded and crying out in pain. Mr. Quinn’s friend died in his arms
In October 1995, shortly after being released from active duty in the Marine Corps, Mr. Quinn received partial disability compensation benefits through the VA.
Mr. Quinn’s claims for individual unemployability benefits from the VA
In March 2005. Mr. Quinn submitted an application for individual unemployability benefits with the VA. These benefits only applied to veterans who were unable to maintain significantly gainful employment due to service-connected injuries or impairments.
Mr. Quinn claimed that he had become too disabled to work because his PTSD service-related conditions precluded him from obtaining or maintaining any substantially gainful career employment.
Mr. Quinn submitted a letter from what appeared to be his last employer, Insurance Management Consultants, Inc., stating that he had been fired because of his unpredictable conduct and was no longer working for the company. Mr. Quinn was, at that time, the President, Treasurer, and Secretary, of the company, and his sister signed the letter submitted to the VA.
Between 2005 and 2018, Mr. Quinn completed and answered four VA job questionnaires while receiving individual unemployability benefits, in each of which he swore he had not worked the preceding year.
Mr. Quinn also claimed SSA total disability insurance benefits
In November 2005, Mr. Quinn applied for and received approval for Disability Insurance Benefits from the SSA by alleging that his physical and mental conditions had rendered him unable to work as of September 2004.
Mr. Quinn claimed to the VA and SSA that he was discharged from his position at Insurance Management Consultants, Inc. in 2005 when in reality, he held those positions from 2000 to 2007.
Although Social Security disability recipients are required to notify the SSA if they are working, Mr. Quinn advised the SSA in 2018 that he had not worked since May 2006. Based on this report, the SSA kept giving Mr. Quinn benefits.
The evidence before the jury of Mr. Quinn as a successful full-time insurance agency owner
At trial, the government did not dispute that Mr. Quinn suffered from PTSD. See Agency Checklists’ article of April 5, 2022, Mr. Quinn Group Ins. Owner’s Trial to Begin on Federal Benefit and Social Security Fraud Today.
Instead, the government’s position at Mr. Quinn’s trial was that neither the VA nor the SSA would have paid him $98,940.46 and $324,735.40, respectively, if he truthfully disclosed that he was working as an insurance producer and agency owner.
The evidence was that Mr. Quinn’s PTSD did not preclude him from managing and operating a successful insurance agency, Quinn Insurance, while collecting benefits by claiming he could not work.
Contrary to what he told the VA and SSA, the government’s evidence showed that Mr. Quinn had been working for himself since at least March 2003 as the owner and manager of Quinn Insurance.
Mr. Quinn’s resume to the Town of Arlington did not evidence any disability
As part of its evidence, the government presented the jury with a 2015 resume Mr. Quinn had submitted to the Town of Arlington in connection with his seeking an appointment to a town board.
In this resume, Mr. Quinn touted his insurance business accomplishments for Quinn Insurance as:
- President of the business.
- Responsible for day-to-day operations.
- Preparing financial and tax reports
- Coordinating employee benefits packages.
- Assisting clients with complex insurance issues.
- Supervising a staff of fifteen employees.
- Managing a sales staff,” and
- Growing the agency 1200% over a thirteen-year period.”
While supposedly disabled, Mr. Quinn built up an agency worth $6.5 million
The government showed that Mr. Quinn regularly got payouts while running Quinn Insurance and expanded his company by purchasing nine smaller insurance agencies. For a list of the agencies acquired, see Agency Checklists article of January 7, 2020, “Former Arlington Agency Owner Indicted For Fraudulently obtaining Veteran and Social Security Benefits.
Mr. Quinn maintained for much of the period when he received benefits his insurance producer license and had appointments through Quinn Insurance with sixty-five insurance companies to act as their agent.
The government’s sentencing memorandum identified the following assets Mr. Quinn had developed or acquired while claiming total disability.
- His agency, Quinn Insurance, was sold in May 2021, while he was awaiting trial, for $6.5 million.
- Additionally, Mr. Quinn owns an office building, located at 223 Mass Avenue, in Arlington, MA, where his agency was located, worth over $1 million
- He also owned a home in Arlington worth almost $2 million
- Another home in Naples, Florida, worth almost $4 million.
- Mr. Quinn also owned a number of vehicles and motorcycles.
The range of possible penalties and the sentences recommended by the government and the defense
The charge of theft of public funds provided for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. The charge of making a false statement provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater.
Notwithstanding the maximum penalties allowed by statute, the federal district court judge presiding over a defendant’s trial imposes sentences based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors that individualize the actual sentence.
In this case, the U.S. Attorney’s sentencing recommendation to the judge requested the Court impose a sentence of twenty-seven months, which the U.S. Attorney noted represented the low end of the guidelines sentencing range based on Mr. Quinn’s crimes.
Mr. Quinn’s attorney requested in her sentencing memorandum on behalf of Mr. Quinn that a sentence of “six months home confinement with the ability to work and attend medical appointments” was sufficient punishment.
Mr. Quinn has fourteen days to file a notice of appeal
In federal civil cases, a party has thirty days to file a notice of appeal. In a criminal case, a defendant’s notice of appeal must be filed in the district court within 14 days after the entry of the judgment or the order being appealed.
A judgment in a criminal case is the sentence imposed. In Mr. Quinn’s case, since he protested his innocence to a jury verdict, he has fourteen days from November 9, 2022, the date of the entry of his sentencing on the federal court case docket, to file his notice of appeal.
While it is not common, it is possible for a defendant appealing a criminal conviction to obtain a stay of execution based upon various factors, including a reasonable possibility that the conviction may be overturned on appeal.
The prosecution team involved in obtaining Mr. Quinn’s conviction and sentencing
Assistant U.S. Attorneys J. Mackenzie Duane and Suzanne Sullivan Jacobus of Rollins’ Major Crimes Unit prosecuted the case through a six-day jury trial, with the assistance of United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Christopher Algieri, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General, Northeast Field Office; and Sharon MacDermott, Special Agent in Charge of the Social Security Administration, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations, Boston Field Division.
Agency Checklist will keep its readers posted on any further proceedings in Mr. Quinn’s case.
