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THE WORST INSURANCE CONS OF 2005

The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud has completed its induction of the most brazen, tragic, or stupid convicted insurance criminals for 2005. In an article published by claimsguides.com, the following are listed as the biggest losers in the 2005 Insurance Fraud Hall of Shame:

Burning With Desire

Innocent victim Norma Galindez died when she fell from the burning Palomar tenement hotel in Hollywood. Four fire fighters also were hurt. The hotel's owner, Juan Ortiz, had torched it for insurance money. Ortiz's brother who helped set the fire, also died when gasoline exploded.

Surgery Patients Cut No Breaks

Tam Vu Pham paid more than 5,000 healthy people (yes - you heard it right - 5,000 healthy people) to have surgeons operate on them so his Southern California medical clinic could fraudulently bill insurers more than $96 million dollars. Surgeons had performed colonoscopies, sweaty-palm surgery, and other invasive procedures before this scheme was eventually shutdown.

Truth Decay

Dentist Alireza Asgari performed hundreds of painful, worthless and botched surgeries on patients to steal nearly $370,000 in insurance money. This included unnecessary root canals (ouch!), cavities, and tooth extraction surgeries.

Princess Was Pauper

Antoinette Millard pretended she was a Saudi Princess and hobnobbed with Manhattan society (a little strange - but nothing wrong with that?). However, this daughter of a Buffalo steelworker couldn't afford the swanky living and was busted after trying to raise cash by lying to Chubb Insurance that a thief stole $226,000 worth of her jewels.

Sick Health Plans

In one of the most tragic insurance rip-offs of 2005, William Paul Crouse and Carmello Zanfel sold fake health insurance to tens of thousands of victims through their sham firm TRG Marketing. Florida roofer Rusty Baker committed suicide when TRC would not pay his medical bills. Champion NASCAR driver Pete Orr died of cancer after delays in finding new coverage.

Blight Of The Living Dead

In an almost unbelievable scheme, Molly and Clayton Daniels dug up the body of an elderly woman, dressed her in Clayton's clothes, put her in his car, torched it, and pushed the car off a cliff near Georgetown, Texas. The couple then faked Clayton's death for $110,000 in life-insurance money. Clayton returned disguised as Molly's new boyfriend - but they were busted when the authorities figured this one out (could it have been the uncanny resemblance?).

Blind Ambition

Brian Calen made a small fortune in insurance money by lying that he lost his right eye on three separate boat cruises. The Manhattan day-trader claimed the sun filter fell off a ship's telescope while he was looking through it, a champagne bottle exploded on another cruise (not too original of a story there!), and he was hit by a flying toy disc on a third cruise (hummm).

Unhealthy Health Switch

In another very sad story, Brian Shechtman bilked more than 1,200 Florida seniors out of at least $4 million dollars. He told them they'd bought discount health coverage but actually sold them overpriced life insurance. Many seniors gave up their real health coverage, and some lost their homes and savings to pay medical bills themselves.

In all seriousness, fraud is the leading cause of increased premiums in the insurance industry today. It is illegal to stage an accident or exaggerate injuries to collect insurance money and criminal convictions for these fraudulent acts can result in fines and imprisonment, as well as civil penalties. At Tharpe & Howell, firm attorneys consistently review claims files for signs of insurance fraud as part of their daily case handling procedure. If you would like discuss ways the Firm can help you reduce fraud exposure, contact attorney Robert Freedman at (818) 205-9955 to discuss what we can do.

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Related Attorney(s):
Robert M. Freedman