A public adjuster who pleaded guilty in March to defrauding Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Co. and a Georgia church
out of millions of dollars has been sentenced to 19 years in prison.
A federal judge in Georgia last week also ordered Andrew Aga, sometimes known as Andrew Mitchell, to pay some
$2.9 million in restitution for the Georgia scam and another $1.1 million for similar fraud in Lou
isiana and Texas that he admitted to in court. His prison sentence will be concurrent with a 20-year sentence he receive
d in 2023 for the Louisiana and Texas crimes, the judge said.
“Andrew Mitchell w
ill spend nearly two decades in prison for concocting a devi
ous scheme to swindle insurance money from a historic downtown Albany church, a crime he’s committed in other
communities after natural disasters,” U.S. Attorney William “Will” Keyes said in a statement.
Aga fell under the scrutiny of Georgia Office of Insurance Commi
ssioner investigators after Hurricane Michael hit Florida and part of G
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eorgia in 2018. Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Albany was left with extensive wind and water damage, court documents show. Brotherhood Mutual,
based in Indiana, paid the church $183,208 on the claim in late 2018.
A few days later, a construction company representative showe
up and convinced church leaders to hire his company and a public adjuster to maximize the insurance settlement a
nd make repairs, Aga’s 2024 indictment explains. Aga has said he was associated with Loss Consultants of Texas
, Texas Claim Consultants and his own Mitchell Adjusting International.
Brotherhood Mutual ended up sending three checks to the adj
uster, totaling more than $6 million. Aga forged the church leaders’ na
mes on the check and forwarded only about a third of the total to the church, the court records note.
On top of the fraud, the construction firm left much of the repair work unfinished. When church leaders challenged Aga abo
company was withholding complete payment.