Former Iowa resident Christina M. Pender and California resident Robert K. Taylor have pled guilty to defrauding insurance company AIG out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Taylor also pled guilty to making false statements to a financial institution involving a mortgage fraud scheme in California. Pender pled guilty on April 17, 2014, and Taylor pled guilty on August 27, 2014. On May 21, 2013, a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Iowa indicted Pender and Taylor for wire fraud. From approximately April 1, 2010 to January 5, 2011, Pender and Taylor perpetrated a scheme whereby Pender, then an AIG insurance adjuster located in West Des Moines, Iowa, approved payments to companies owned by Taylor for expert services that were never provided.