N.J. Doubles Insurance Fraud Prosecutions

"We want to recognize the efforts of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden Brown in taking a tough stand on insurance fraud," said Richard Stokes, Northeast regional manager for the Downers Grove, Ill.-based Alliance of American Insurers. Mr. Stokes is a panel member at the summit.

The meeting will include the presentation of the state's Prosecutors Excellence in Investigation Award, which will go this year to the special investigative unit of Prudential Property and Casualty.

Mr. Stokes said that according to the state's latest figures for the fraud unit the number of individuals charged by indictment or accusation has been on a steady upward climb.

In 2000, the number was 86 increasing to 118 in 2001, 225 in 2002 and by Aug. 31 of this year 283. Mr. Stokes said the number of civil actions by the state's anti-fraud unit had gone from 1,646 in 2000 to 1,945 in 2001, 3,723 in 2002 and by August of this year 4,000 had been filed.

Mr. Stokes said that ever since the state held a fraud summit in 1999, insurers' anti-fraud personnel and other representatives have been holding monthly working group meetings with Ms. Brown's office to coordinate efforts and share expertise in an effort to reduce the level of fraud.

"Her efforts, combined with the legislature's passage of Gov. Jim McGreevey's insurance reform package, have made New Jersey a national leader in fighting insurance fraud," he said.

Mr. Stokes noted that, "The Governor's signing of S. 63 added the necessary changes to give real teeth to the law by making insurance fraud a crime, and now we're seeing the prosecutor's office take a bite out of the criminal marketplace that had thrived in New Jersey prior to this new attitude."