No criminal masterminds here: the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud's annual Hall of Shame spotlights 2008's largest and sometimes dumbest insurance fraud schemes. What did they have in common? They all got caught.

Appellate Judge Michael Joyce from Erie, Pa., collected $440,000 in auto insurance after lying that a 5 mph bumper bender nearly crippled him. But although nearly “crippled,” Joyce flew airplanes, golfed, roller bladed and scuba dived in the Caribbean. Joyce will be sentenced in 2009.
Samuel Aaron Brabson claimed a car crash left him nearly crippled and confined to a wheelchair. The Richmond, Va. man received more than $1.2 million in disability claims. But Brabson competed in triathlons and went mountain hiking. He received 1 year in prison.
Two dentists at a North Carolina clinic billed Medicaid for millions in root canals and pulled teeth–procedures the dentists claimed were done to children. At least two kids each had 16 root canals and steel crown procedures. Letitia Balance and Michael DeRose paid $10 million to settle federal civil charges.
Serving 11 years for health insurance fraud, Dr. Ira Klein plotted to kill those whom he thought had sent him away. The Houston physician tried to pay a hit man to have his wife shot, a federal prosecutor run over by a truck and to have acid thrown in an FBI agent's face. The plot was stopped in time. In a plea deal, Klein will serve an additional year.
Michael Paul Schook told so many people he would burn down his Suffield, Conn., home for insurance money that half the town knew about his plot. At least three people turned him in after he repeatedly said how easy the scheme would be. Schook received 7 years.
Two elderly women befriended a pair of homeless men in Los Angeles, then took out $3 million in life policies, naming themselves as the beneficiaries. Helen Golay and Olga Rutterschmidt then had cars run down Paul Vados and Kenneth McDavid in dark alleys. Both women received life sentences.
Three men sold fake workers' compensation policies to small businesses, stealing at least $70 million in premiums. One injured worker couldn't afford a prosthetic leg. Donald Touchet received 22 years, Robert Standridge received 18 years and Robert Jennings received 15 years.
Michigan dermatologist Robert Stokes inflated claims while exposing thousands of patients to disease by reusing sutures, scalpels and syringes. Stokes also removed minor lesions from patients after lying to them that they had cancer. Stokes stole at least $1 million in insurance money and received 10 years in federal prison.

Read more at the Hall of Shame at www.InsuranceFraud.org.

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Industry IQ: 2008 Insurance Fraud Hall Of Shame

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