Florida chiropractor “Dr. Gary” Kompothecras is suing BloombergNews, Allstate Insurance and three other defendants on claims oflibel, slander and misappropriation of trade secrets.

On Nov. 8, Kompothecras, the wealthy owner of 1-800-ASK-GARY, amedical and legal referral service for auto crash victims, filed asuit in the Sarasota Circuit Court against Bloomberg News stemmingfrom an article it published in 2011.

Citing medical bills provided by patients, the article questioned whether Kompothecras—a longtime donor to theRepublican party—and his clinic chain, the Physician's Group, mayhave based expensive treatments on the depth of patient's insurancecoverage.

The article's author, David Armstrong, and two formerPhysician's Group patients are also named in the lawsuit, whichalleges they conspired to slander the chiropractor's business.

Accordingto the Sarasota Herald Tribune , the lawsuit states, “Thecase arose after extortionists threatened Physicians Group and Dr.Gary Kompothecras that they would destroy their reputations unlessthey coughed up $3 million.”

The suit implicates that Allstate and Bloomberg conspired withthe extortionists “to publish an outlandish hit piece maliciouslyasserting defamatory lies” against the business in order to closeit.

The referral chain has long been simmering in hot water: inOctober, Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation barred AGIC Inc.,an auto insurance company owned by Kompothecras, from writing newpolicies, alleging that it did not have enough capital to pay forclaims.

State Farm sued 1-800-ASK-GARY in July, stating Kompothecraswas involved in a fraud scheme that allegedly cost the insurer morethan $19 million since 2005.

The referral service called the lawsuit “frivolous andmalicious”, and stated that State Farm owed the Physicans Grouppayment on more than a thousand claims.