CAIF Creates 'Fraud Hall of Shame'

By Michael Ha

NU Online News Service, Dec. 18, 2:25 p.m. EST?The Washington, D.C.-based Coalition Against Insurance Fraud said it has selected 13 insurance fraud perpetrators for its first annual "Insurance Fraud Hall of Shame."

"One of our goals is to create an awareness about insurance fraud--its diversity, its severity, and how it impacts consumers and our society," Dennis Jay, the coalition's executive director, told National Underwriter.

The coalition came up with the idea for the Hall of Shame because it is always looking for ways to increase that awareness, Mr. Jay said.

"We act as a clearinghouse for insurance fraud information, and we gather all these cases--thousands of cases a year. And what really struck us is how brazen and sometimes stupid people can be when committing insurance fraud," he said.

The inaugural fraud Class of 2002 was selected for insurance swindles that were exceptionally large, brazen, tragic or just plain incompetent, he added, and all members were convicted or had their cases closed this year.

For example, one inductee, a Beverly Hills lawyer named Rex DeGeorge, insisted Russian pirates had tried to scuttle his yacht after he was caught in a scheme to sink his luxury boat for $3.5 million in insurance money.

Mr. DeGeorge received a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence. But many insurance swindlers never get caught, and they cost the insurance industry some $80 billion a year, Mr. Jay said.

Such cases illustrate the wide-ranging aspect of insurance fraud--there are probably more ways to commit an insurance fraud than any other type of crime, Mr. Jay argued.

"And it cuts across the entire spectrum of American society. We have ordinary citizens and organized crime rings. We have doctors, lawyers, employers and employees, and even insurance agents," he observed.

One of the reasons for such diversity is that there are simply a lot of opportunities out there for everyone.

"Everyone has insurance and pays premiums. Also, insurance fraud is viewed as a high-reward, low-risk crime. There is a sense that there is not a great chance that you will get caught, and that even if you do, chances are that not a whole lot is going to happen to you," Mr. Jay said.

But that perception is less true now than it was even just a few years ago--the odds of getting caught are greater now than ever before and the punishment is getting harsher, he said, "and we are hoping that through this awareness program, the old perception will change."

To select this year's Hall of Shame inductees, the coalition assembled a panel including insurance companies, consumer leaders, and at least one government official, Mr. Jay explained. But beginning next year, he also plans to allow online visitors to the coalition's Web site to recommend candidates.

Others who made it into the inaugural Hall of Shame include:

? Financier Martin Frankel in Greenwich, Conn., took over seven small insurance companies and stole nearly $200 million while thousands of policyholders lost their coverage. He faces up to 150 years in prison.

? Quentin Hawkins in New York staged hundreds of fake car crashes, costing insurers $20 million over 20 years. He was sentenced to five years in federal prison.

? Jaelynn Sealey, Hunterville, N.C., torched her car and painted racial slurs on her garage door to fake a hate crime and collect on her car insurance. She received six months in prison.

? Dr. Andrew Cubria in Chicago performed more than 750 unnecessary heart operations on homeless people to illegally bill taxpayer-supported Medicaid more than $2 million. He received 12 1/2 years in federal prison.

? A farmer in Rochelle, Ga., buried his eight-ton cotton picker in the ground and then pretended it was stolen so he could claim insurance money. He was convicted and the case was closed this year when he repaid all court-ordered money.

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CAIF Creates 'Fraud Hall of Shame'

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