An insurance company has filed suit to prevent the family of a Long Island, N.Y., motivational speaker from collecting on the $4 million life insurance policy he took out a month before his allegedly staged death.

Principal Life Insurance of Iowa says the family of Jeffrey Locker, the motivational speaker and a married father of three, should not collect on the policy because Locker allegedly lied about his income, according to the New York Daily News, citing court records filed in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Locker’s accused killer, ex-con Claude Minor, who allegedly stabbed and choked him to death last summer in his car in East Harlem, says he was paid to stage the incident as a robbery, thus permitting Locker’s family to collect the $4 million, according to the newspaper report. Minor is awaiting trial on second-degree murder charges.

Principal Life, while making no mention of the unusual nature of Locker’s death, argues in court papers that Locker’s tax returns show less earnings than the $800,000 he claimed, according to the newspaper, which also said he is accused of lying about canceling another $4 million policy.