The senior House Republican on the legislative committee that oversees insurance in Maine joined WVOM’s George Hale and Ric Tyler Friday morning to discuss a letter he sent to Maine’s insurance regulator calling on him to investigate whether Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Allagash) supplied false information to an insurance company.
“I think that the the superintendent of insurance ought to have some interest in some of the actions that Troy Jackson may have made,” said Rep. Josh Morris (R-Turner).
Morris said Jackson is suing the couple that sold him an Augusta home in 2019 over damage present in the house before he bought it, but he is at the same time claiming nearly identical damage happened in Jan. 2021 for the purposes of collecting an insurance claim.
“So one of those things can’t be true,” said Morris.
“You have a situation where what he told the insurance company and what he’s alleging in the lawsuit are two different sets of facts,” Morris said.
Morris told the Maine Wire that two state statutes give Acting Superintendent of the Maine Bureau of Insurance Timothy Schott the authority to investigate Jackson’s insurance claim.
Both statutes fall under the Maine Insurance Code’s Chapter 23: Trade Practices and Fraud.
“The superintendent of insurance does have the authority to investigate insurance fraud and that is why I sent him a letter laying out my concerns asking him to look into this,” he said.
More of the Maine Wire’s coverage on the Troy Jackson scandal:
- Payments to Troy Jackson for Travel, Lodging Nearly Doubled After He Bought Home in Augusta, Totaled $160k from 2019-2023
- The Mortgage Broker Troy Jackson Threw Under the Bus Denies Wrongdoing: “Something seems a little fishy here”
- Maine’s Governor Mills Says Ethics Commission Will Decide Senate President Troy Jackson’s Fate
- Troy Jackson Admits: He “Never Really Read” FHA Mortgage Doc He Signed and Failed to Satisfy
- Ethics Complaint Against Troy Jackson Officially Filed Over Residency Requirement Violation, Potential Fraud
He said investigating insurance fraud is important for all Mainers because fraudulent payments only increase the premiums paid by insurance customers.
Schott has not commented publicly on Jackson’s insurance claim.
Attorney General Aaron Frey, who was asked to investigate Jackson by Rep. John Andrews (R-Paris) as part of an ethics complaint, has also not commented publicly about the matter, apart from telling WGME that his office is “reviewing” the information.
Schott, who served as the deputy superintendent starting in 2009, previously served as a criminal prosecutor in Iowa for 13 years.
Morris noted that Gov. Janet Mills has yet to appoint a full-time superintendent to run the bureau and that a confirmation hearing for that nominee will likely involve questions over Jackson’s insurance claim.
