NRI Mother and Daughter charged after attempting to burn down Grocery Store business in Kentucky, US  to claim insurance

New York, August 27, 2020
NRIpress.club/Ramesh/ A.Gary Singh

Manjit K. Singh, 49, of Greenup city, Kentucky and her daughter, Harpneet K. Bath, 27, a resident of British Columbia, Canada, were sentenced in federal court on Wednesday, to 18 months and 9 months in prison, respectively, for conspiring to burn down Singh’s convenience store in Greenup, in order to fraudulently obtain insurance proceeds.          

•  Manjit K. Singh admitted to offering a confidential informant $5,000, in January 2020, to burn down the convenience store she owned and operated, Wolf’s Food Mart and Pool Hall, in Greenup. (Agreed in Plea Agreement)
•  The store was insured by Scottsdale Insurance Company, and Singh intended to burn it down for the purpose of collecting insurance proceeds.
•  Manjit K. Singh acknowledged instructing the informant on how she wanted the arson to be performed, and promised him  to pay  $1,000 up front, and the remaining $4,000 after she received the insurance proceeds from the fraudulent claim of fire loss. 

Her daughter Harpneet K. Bath admitted to traveling from Canada to Greenup, in order to help her mother commit the fraud. 

•  In their plea agreements, both admitted that they met with the informant on the eve of the planned arson.
• At that meeting, Bath gave him $900 in cash and obtained his bank account information, so she could wire him the remaining funds, once the insurer paid the fraudulent claim. 

Law enforcement officers disrupted the plot before the arson was committed.

Under federal law, Singh and

• Bath must serve 85 percent of their prison sentences and will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for two years. 
• In addition to their prison sentences, Singh was ordered to pay a fine of $5,000 and Bath a fine of $2,500.