NU Online News Service, Jan. 5, 1:12 p.m.EST

Sixteen New Yorkers are the targets of the latest fraud lawsuitfiled in the state by Allstate Insurance.

Allstate says it is seeking to get back more than $1.1 millionfrom what the company says was its ninth insurance fraud lawsuit in2011. The suit was filed inFederal District Court on Dec. 30,Allstate says in a statement.

The latest suit names individuals involved in the allegedillegal ownership of professional-medical corporations, and allegesthat the defendants submitted fraudulent claims for services thatwere done by independent contractors—a violation of the state'sno-fault auto-insurance law.

Allstate and other insurers, as well as state leaders, arecurrently seeking to reform the New York no-fault law. The systemis plagued by fraud, which costs the state's residents millions ofdollars each year in what amounts to what the insurance industryhas term a “fraud tax.”

The Northbrook, Ill.-insurer has sued to recover more than $185million in fraud-related damages in New York since 2003.

Earlier in December Allstate filed a suit seeking to recover$6.3 million from 83 defendants who allegedly submittedfraudulent and misleading bills to the insurer.

In its latest court filing, Allstate claims a chiropractor andothers supposedly controlled two medical corporations allegedlyowned by a medical doctor, and used these entities to submitfraudulent claims to the insurers. Four others are among thosenamed as defendants for their alleged roles in being part of thisscheme, Allstate says.