Texas insurance broker sentenced to prison

A 47-year-old Harlingen man was sentenced to more than three years in federal prison for a scheme to defraud a Rio Grande Valley hospital of more than $3.8 million by selling it nonexistent and altered insurance policies.

Judge Keith P. Ellison on Friday sentenced Michael N. Swetnam Jr. to three years' supervised release and ordered him to pay $2.95 million in restitution to Valley Baptist Hospital. A jury found Swetnam guilty of three counts of mail fraud in May.

Officials said Swetnam, a licensed insurance broker in the Brownsville area, sold the hospital both nonexistent windstorm policies and excess liability policies with premium amounts Swetnam altered after receiving the policies from the insurer.