A Valley man and woman were sentenced to prison for what the Arizona Attorney General’s Office says was an insurance fraud scheme.

Shannon Ariel Lovell was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison with an additional three years of probation on April 2 after pleading guilty to one count each of participating in a criminal syndicate and fraudulent schemes and artifices. Ryan Patrick Michell was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison on March 12 and four years of probation in the scheme for one count of participating in a criminal syndicate with a prior felony conviction and one count of fraudulent schemes and artifices, according to a release.

Authorities said from July 1, 2017 through about July 8, 2019, in Maricopa County, Michell and Lovell operated a scheme designed to fraudulently collect life insurance proceeds at the expense of vulnerable victims.

Michell created a fictitious company called “Patriot Life Insurance Co.,” which was advertised it was selling legitimate term life insurance. Michell and Lovell then targeted vulnerable populations, including those dealing with substance abuse as well as homeless individuals and those at methadone clinics, according to a release.

Lovell recruited victims to sign up for what they described as a free life insurance policy subsidized by a nonprofit to help people who could not afford coverage.

Once victims completed enrollment forms with their personal information, Michell used that information to take out real policies with actual insurance companies, but altered the documents to substitute himself and Lovell as beneficiaries and replaced victims’ contact information with fictitious email addresses and their own home addresses. The two agreed to split the proceeds evently, according to a release.

“These defendants built a predatory scheme from the ground up — creating a fake insurance company, targeting people facing addiction and homelessness, and then positioning themselves to profit from those victims’ deaths,” Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a release. “My office remains committed to protecting vulnerable Arizonans from exploitation and abuse.”