It has been revealed that a couple were charged in a federal court in Sioux Falls with faking the husband's death to collect on his life insurance.

The woman, 39, and her 45-year-old husband pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud. The wife was freed on bail while the husband was being held without bond.

Authorities said the woman claimed that her husband had died after eating bad oysters during a family holiday in Malaysia in 2003. She eventually settled the insurance case with two insurance providers for $2 million.

Their planned was foiled when FBI agents informed Sioux Falls-based Midland National Life about a year ago that husband walked into the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, and asked to renew his passport. The man was arrested in Guam last month.

Similar life insurance fraud incidents have occurred nationwide. One example is of an English couple, who faked a canoe death, to cash in on the husband’s life insurance policy.