Break out the hazmat suits: Theannual “Insurance Fraud Hall of Shame” has been unsealed. Thenewest Barons of Bleak have been dishonored as America's biggestinsurance extreme schemers of 2010 by the Coalition AgainstInsurance Fraud (CAIF).

The Coalition annually outlines the year's largest, most brazenor dumbest insurance swindlers. All masters of disaster wereconvicted or had other resolution this year.

The Hall of Shame works to build public intolerance of insurancefraud by revealing the sordid human face of this $80-billion annualcrime spree.

This year's soldiers of misfortune launched a memorable reign oferror. Faithfully following the Rule of Flaw, these scammersdrained insurers and terrorized innocent consumers. Some victimstragically paid the ultimate price, and didn't live to see theculprits convicted.

So belly up to the bar–jail bars, that is–and learn how theNo-Class of 2010 earned their dishonorable mentions.

Enter the Malice Palace

Jeffrey Alnutt

A tenant died when cash-poor landlord Jeffrey Alnutt burned downhis apartment building to steal more than $300,000 in insurancemoney. The Johnstown, N.Y. man's second-floor tenant Debra Morrisdied when she dashed back into the flaming building to rescue hercat.

Investigators identified four spots where gasoline was found inthe ruins: a staircase, an enclosed porch, the living room andkitchen. A red gasoline can was found melted to the floor.

Alnutt had plenty of motives. His finances plummeted whenseveral of his businesses declined because he spent too much timewith his girlfriend, his ex-wife testified during the trial.Hard-up for money, he couldn't cover the mortgages on severalbuildings he owned.

The court sentenced Alnutt to 25 years to life for murder. He'salready serving 15 years for burning down his house for nearly$200,00 in fraudulent insurance claims.

Francis Fredette

The Rutland, Vt. man broke his back when he tumbled off the roofof a gas station he was burglarizing. Still scheming despite hispainful injury, Fredette had his crony drive him to Fredette'sapartment building and dump him on the front steps.

Fredette then shook down his innocent landlords and insurer,lying that he had slipped on the landlords' supposedly unsafesteps. Fredette made $700,000 on the deal.

The landlords' insurer paid him $550,000, and the landlords gaveup their life savings of $150,000 to pay Fredette the balance. Thelandlords had counted on that money for retirement. Things gotsticky when Fredette's crony had a fit of conscience and turned himin. Fredette received 46 months in jail. But he'd already spent thestolen money and was broke, thus forcing his hapless crony to repaythe landlords and the insurer.

Joel Zellmer

The Seattle, Wash.-area man drowned his three-year-oldstepdaughter for $200,000 in life-insurance money. Young AshleyMcLellan suspiciously died in Zellmer's pool only months after heand Ashley's mother married. He bought the life policy on Ashleyjust three months before killing her.

Zellmer had a dubious history of whirlwind romances with womenwho had toddlers. Ashley's mother was the third single mother towhom he'd proposed in a year.

Zellmer was engaged to yet another woman with a two-year-oldchild, and strangely wanted to buy life insurance on her and herdaughter. The child later was pulled from the pool, and histhen-wife found a handprint-shaped bruise on the girl.

His first wife's four-month-old infant also had at least one legsuspiciously broken in Zellmer's care. He claimed the child washurt in a hit-and-run crash. Zellmer made a $25,000uninsured-motorist claim afterward. But he dropped the claim whenhis wife provided the insurer with a sworn affidavit saying that nocrash happened. She said she saw Zellmer damaging the back of hisHonda to create the appearance of a rear-end collision.

The court sentenced Zellmer to 50 years in prison for Ashley'smurder.

James Kalfsbeek and Donna Jean Rowe

A self-styled “Christian” auto insurer launched an unholy con.The Puget's Sound Agricultural Society claimed it was a Christianoutfit. The Calif.-based group inhaled millions of dollars bycharging drivers $500 for a lifetime membership, plus $250 pervehicle.

But Puget's Sound wasn't licensed in California, didn't haveproper reserves, and paid only small claims while ignoring largerones. Nor did the so-called “policies” pay for pain and suffering,which the group considered part of “God's plan.”

Consumers who were involved in car wrecks had their driverlicenses suspended because their auto insurance wasn't real.

A Mich. court handed down a $20-million civil judgment involvinga single-car crash that killed Fred Coty and left Jill Gloverseverely disabled for life. A Puget's Sound member was driving. ButPuget's Sound “paid” the grieving families by trying to pawn off onthem a “Bill of Exchange.” The document fraudulently authorized theU.S. Secretary of the Treasury to pay out the money.

At their criminal trial, the scheme's head honchos JamesKalfsbeek and Donna Jean Rowe defiantly called themselves“sovereign citizens” not subject to government oversight. Thatdidn't sit well with the court, nor did anything else. Kalfsbeekreceived 10 years in federal prison, and Rowe four years.

Bart Posey

One of America's largest and most-notorious fake health plansbilked vulnerable consumers around the U.S. Bart Posey controlledthe unlicensed American Trade Association. The outfit was a majorplayer in a national wave of bogus health plans exploitingconsumers in a downturned economy. Many consumers had no healthinsurance or were simply looking for an affordable deal, and fellprey to sales pitches such as ATAs.

The Springfield, Tenn. outfit sold fake coverage to at least 12,000 people, and stole as muchas $12 million in premiums. Some victims were stuck with largehospital bills when ATA refused to pay their claims.

An Okla. man was in desperate condition when his heart startedfailing. He urgently needed a pacemaker, but ATA wouldn't pay forhis surgery. He was having trouble finding coverage from legitimateinsurers afterward because of his preexisting condition.

S.C. resident Beth Wicker suffered a stroke and went to thehospital, only to discover her ATA coverage was bogus. She owes$17,000 in medical bills, lost her premiums, and has no healthinsurance.

ATA spread its tentacles so far that insurance departmentsaround the U.S. were forced to issue cease-and-desist orders andconsumer alerts. The Tennessee insurance department liquidated ATAthis year.

Dr. Steven Schneider

Dozens of patients died from overdoses linked to illegalinsurer-paid prescriptions for powerful addictive painkillers andother drugs provided by a clinic run by Dr. Stephen Schneider.

Many of the Wichita, Kans.-area doctor's patients were addicts.He prescribed drugs to some patients even after they'd overdosed onthe same kinds of drugs. Schneider also left blank pads of signedprescriptions so his clinic staff could illegally dispense drugs.His nurse wife also forged his signature to otherprescriptions.

He stole more than $20 million worth of insurance money,prosecutors contended. Some 68 people were linked to overdosedeaths from addictive prescription drugs Schneider's clinicprescribed. His prescriptions also were linked to 107 overdoses atlocal emergency rooms.

An amputee's decomposing body was discovered at home. The manhad taken oxycodone and a muscle relaxant together in an accidentaldeath after Schneider had prescribed him drugs. Another patientdied of an overdose after going to a clinic for severe migraines.She was prescribed Actiq–a potent, addictive painkiller approvedfor cancer patients.

Schneider's clinic accounted for 18 percent of overdose deathsin the Sedgwick County area from 2002 through 2007. Diversion ofaddictive prescription drugs has reached epidemic levels in manyareas of the U.S. Insurers pay much of the tab through illicitprescription claims.

Schneider received 30 years in prison.

Kelly Klein

The Seattle, Wash.-area woman may have the unluckiest family inthe U.S. They kept getting badly hurt–or so Klein claimed. Kleinfiled more than $200,000 in fake injury claims. The money involved96 claims involving family members in less than threeyears–covering a long list of improbable and phantom accidents.

Klein's husband, for instance, supposedly lost his foot after itwas crushed by a tractor and required a medical helicopterevacuation to the hospital for amputation. To enhance the seemingrealism, Klein even filed a claim for a prosthetic foot.

In addition, her teenage son was seriously burned in a fireworksexplosion, needing days of treatment at a burn center, Kleininsisted. Her teenage daughter broke her femur in a car wreck thatalso forced her husband into a wheelchair. The maladies wenton.

Klein submitted forged receipts, medical records, and policeaccident reports to support her fraudulent claims. However, insurerbackground checks with doctor offices and hospitals showed thatKlein's family members had never been patients there, or at leastnot for the claimed treatments. Despite it all, Klein received onlya year in jail, with most of the sentence suspended. She also wasforced to repay most of the stolen insurance money.

Pierre Lamont Taylor

Going to body-mangling extremes, swindlers sometimes mutilatethemselves for insurance money. Figuring he could make a livingwithout actually working, Pierre Lamont Taylor had his cousin shoothim in the leg to fake a robbery and steal workers' compensation money.

Taylor worked for UPS and lied that he was wounded during ajob-related robbery in the Washington, D.C. area. Sporting a freshbullet hole in his right leg, Taylor made a workers' comp claimwith Liberty Mutual, which paid out a lump sum of $250,000 as UPS'insurer.

Taylor shared some of his insurance windfall with his crony aspayment for the shooting. The dishonest duo got the idea for theshooting after watching a television show involving a similar plot.A former friend of Taylor told authorities about the scheme, andTaylor ultimately confessed.

Taylor and his cousin each received five years in prison(suspended) in a scheme that the cousin's sentencing judge called“one of the dumbest things” he's ever seen.

James Quiggle is the director of communications for theCoalition Against Insurance Fraud. He may be reached [email protected], www.insurancefraud.org.