Former Georgia insurance commissioner Jim Beck sentenced to 7 years

Georgia’s former insurance commissioner will spend more than seven years in prison, as he finally accepted responsibility Tuesday for a $2.5 million fraud even as a federal judge lambasted him for lying from the stand during his July trial.

U.S. District Judge Mark Cohen sentenced Jim Beck to seven years, three months in federal prison, less than the 10 years federal prosecutors had originally aimed for, but more than the five years Beck’s lawyers argued was enough.

Cohen also ordered Beck to pay $2.6 million in restitution and to serve three years of supervised release after he gets out of prison. Beck, 60, remains free on bail and is likely to report to prison in December.