An insurance company is suing to collect just over $5.2 million from a couple criminally convicted of selling 13,000 pairs of skis belonging to Aspen Skiing Co.
National Union Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh’s civil complaint, which was filed against Derek and Kerri Johnson on Wednesday in Denver federal court, said the pair should be held responsible for the seven-figure sum the carrier paid to Henry Crown and Co. and its subsidiary Skico.
Skico and its parent company were reimbursed for their financial losses stemming from the scam under their “employee dishonesty” coverage with National Union Insurance. The Johnsons’ 12-year-long racket triggered the coverage payment.
“National Union issued a policy of insurance to Crown in which National Union agreed to insure Crown and Aspen for losses sustained due to employee dishonesty,” the suit said.
Reached Thursday, Kerri Johnson declined comment. Derek Johnson, who once ran Skico’s retail division, currently is serving a six-year prison sentence that Pitkin County District Judge Chris Seldin handed him in January 2020.
Though their criminal cases have been adjudicated — in February 2020, Kerri Johnson was sentenced to 90 days in jail and five years of probation for her guilty plea to one count of felony theft — the civil court is the latest venue for the continued fallout from the scam that lasted from 2006 through November 2018.
It was during that time period that the Johnson couple, National…