On July 11, 2007, according to court documents, the Mansour Seck Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust applied to MetLife Investors USA Insurance Company (the predecessor to Brighthouse Life Insurance Company) for a $5 million universal life insurance policy insuring the life of a ‘Mansour Seck’. After confirming that its procedures and guidelines were met, MetLife issued a $5 million universal life insurance policy on or around July 24, 2007.
The life insurance application offered financial details describing a wealthy retired ambassador, a French citizen living in a three-story apartment building at 170 Academy Street in Jersey City, New Jersey. The address is in the Journal Square neighborhood, named for the Jersey Journal whose headquarters were located there from 1911 to 2013. At the time of the application, the median income in Journal Square was $32,625.
The condition of the apartment listed on the application stands out as a clue that he may not have been living the lifestyle of a multi-millionaire French dignitary. Built in 1895, 170 Academy Street has 14 units and today rents for around $2,700 per month for a 1-bedroom.
He could easily afford the rent. The application for Seck’s policy stated that he earned $500,000 from a pension and $1.5 million from investments each year. The 74-year-old was listed as having a net worth between $18 million and $20 million, showing he could handle premium payments as well.
So how did a wealthy retired ambassador come to live in Journal Square? Whatever the reason, it’s clear that Seck was not your average retiree. Perhaps the ambassador was spending time at his other properties, as the application claimed; apparently, Seck owned Washington, D.C. real estate valued in excess of $4 million, real estate in Jersey City valued in excess of $1.3 million and real estate in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, valued at approximately $200,000 to $300,000.
All seemed to proceed like any other transaction, and for the next two years the Seck Trust paid $248,711.14 in premiums. After the two-year contestability period ended, the Seck Trust sold the policy on the secondary market and in 2015 Geronta Funding purchased it in a tertiary market transaction as part of a portfolio. In 2017 Geronta notified Brighthouse of its suspicions that the insured (Seck) was a fictitious person.
Geronta was correct.
According to the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, an insurance agent with the same last name and the same address — Pape Michael Seck, 170 Academy Street, Suite B23, Jersey City, New Jersey — had created fraudulent documents to supplement applications for seven multi-million-dollar life insurance policies for fictitious individuals, including the policy for Mansour Seck.
Licensed in New York and New Jersey, he would forge documents, create false identities, and even bring on accomplices to help carry out the plan. Pape Michael Seck created documents on “Sims, Stewart and Weis, PC” letterhead in which the accomplice, using the name “Angela Sims,” purported to be the ambassador’s financial advisor and accountant.
The Attorney General’s office said Seck admitted he submitted false applications to other insurance companies for policies on behalf of Mansour Seck, listing Pape Michael Seck as Mansour Seck’s son and the beneficiary. However, his father, whose name is Mansour Seck, didn’t apply for the life insurance, nor did anyone by that name. In filing the applications, he also used identifying information, including a Social Security number, from two other real people named Mansour Seck, the investigation showed. One is a retired dignitary from Senegal (Mansour Seck is a common name in the country) and the other a New Jersey resident.
Geronta agreed to rescind the policy but wanted a refund of all premiums paid. Brighthouse disagreed, so the parties took the case to Delaware Superior Court, and it later headed to the Delaware Supreme Court which was asked to determine whether premiums paid on insurance policies declared void ab initio — or having no legal effect from inception — for lack of an insurable interest should be returned.
In the end, Pape Michael Seck’s lies caught up with him, and he was ultimately fined and sentenced to prison for the Mansour Seck case, as well as others. The legal sector is paying particular attention to the Seck decision, as it begins to offer much-needed clarity on a complex issue. While there are still unanswered questions, the case sets a precedent that will likely be followed in future litigation.
