Charges: New Ulm man forged info for insurance payout

A New Ulm man is accused of forging information to close his estranged wife’s bank account and cash out a life insurance policy.

Brian Jesse Landreville, 53, was charged with felony counts of identity theft, theft, and forgery Thursday in Brown County Court.

According to a criminal complaint, Landreville forged his wife’s signature in 2008 to add his name to an account she had opened for a daycare business five years earlier.  The complaint says the victim never used the account but kept it open for credit purposes.

Landreville then closed the account in March 2020, according to the complaint, and a life insurance policy belonging to the victim paid out $6,622.20, which was deposited to an account in Landreville’s name.

Investigators say an email address used to e-sign for the closure of the policy was traced to Landreville.  A phone number used for the same purpose was determined to be a prepaid Tracfone.

The complaint also says that the victim was in Florida at the time of the insurance transaction, while the IP address captured by the life insurance company was traced to Nuvera, a New Ulm-based internet service provider.