Former Conseco executives Steve Hilbert and Rollin Dick are caught in a bitter legal battle between billionaire hardware king John Menard and his ex-fiancee.

Businessman J.B. Carlson is in debt for $5.9 million, and he may have been the last person to see 74-year-old Suzy Tomlinson alive. Her $15 million life-insurance policy named him as the beneficiary.

The last man to settle with with the Carmel insurer over unpaid debt now is now being sued for not paying his legal bill.

The 25,000-square-foot mansion once owned by Conseco Inc. founder Stephen Hilbert was listed five years ago at $20 million—and about half that in recent months. Now the property is being sold in a sealed-bid auction, and offers are due Friday.

Information that could prove her death was not an accident has surfaced during civil proceedings involving a life insurance policy.

The wife of Indianapolis businessman Steve Hilbert is working with a team of attorneys to determine whether her deceased mother’s estate can claim the benefit of a life insurance policy issued by Houston-based American General Life Insurance Co.

As IBJ reported last year, Houston-based American General Life Insurance Company is attempting to invalidate a $15 million policy it issued in January 2006 insuring the life of Germaine “Suzy” Tomlinson—Conseco Inc. co-founder Stephen Hilbert’s mother-in-law—who died Sept. 28, 2008, at age 74.

After more than four years on the market, the Carmel estate built for Conseco Inc. founder Stephen Hilbert is listed at $9.9 million—less than half of the original asking price and a third of the $30 million it was estimated to be worth in 2001.

Local businessman J.B. Carlson contends the $15 million life insurance policy he took out on Stephen Hilbert’s mother-in-law was legitimate, because she served on his firm’s board and was a key decision-maker. The mother-in-law, Germaine “Suzy” Tomlinson, died at age 74 last September—just 32 months after the policy was issued.

Indianapolis businessman Steve Hilbert fears foul play in the recent death of his mother-in-law—a suspicion fueled by a new federal lawsuit alleging a woman by the same name was caught up in a $15-million life insurance fraud scheme. Though he acknowledges having no hard evidence, Hilbert said he has asked law enforcement authorities to reopen their investigation into the Sept. 28 death of Germaine "Suzy" Tomlinson, 69, mother of his wife, Tomisue.

Less than two years after New Sunshine LLC was bought by a group led by former Conseco Inc. CEO Stephen Hilbert, its Australian Gold division has acquired its top two competitors, amassing 80 percent of the indoor suntan lotion market.