No-Fault Insurance Fraud Scheme
From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Queens Injury Attorney)
FBI and police investigation has resulted in 61 persons and 2 corporations being charged with fraud on October 30, 2008.
Queens County District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced the end of a widespread, multimillion-dollar No-Fault insurance fraud scheme. Defendants, some of whom operated a Manhattan medical clinic, are charged with staging accidents and even causing them deliberately over the last three years. It is claimed that insurance carriers were cheated out of more than $1.6 million for unnecessary medical treatment for made up or exaggerated injuries.
District Attorney Brown said, "With today's indictments, we have closed down a major insurance fraud ring and have sent a clear message that combating insurance fraud remains a top law enforcement priority."
Also, a threat to public safety has been halted.
The investigation, called Operation Direct Hit, started when Queens police noticed a pattern of accidents within a few blocks. The victim's vehicle - usually driven by a person of Asian descent - was intentionally hit while backing out of a driveway or pulling out of a parking spot. The defendant alleged to have coordinated these accidents targeted Asian drivers due to prejudice, because he believed they are commonly thought to be bad drivers and would be blamed by police and insurance companies for the accident instead of the persons staging the accident.
Some of the Asian drivers were hurt or injured and, as a result, some of the defendants are charged with assault as a hate crime, which can add to their prison sentence if they're convicted.
Defendants are also charged with enterprise corruption, insurance fraud, grand larceny, falsifying business records and money laundering.
The occupants of the cars were allegedly over-treated at Bronx Park Medical (also known as Health Bay Medical) at 100 Dyckman Street in Manhattan, which was at the heart of the scam.
The clinic's operators allegedly paid up to $2,500 to their "runners" for each person recruited to pose as an injured accident victim. The runners or other clinic employee then paid the fake patients up to $1,000 to participate in the scheme. Furthermore, lawsuits for some of the staged accidents were spun off to various personal injury lawyers
Comment: Can the indictment of doctors and lawyers be far behind?
