Fraud of the Week

December 7, 2015

Fraud Ring—New York

Amount: $279 million

 

Being the end of the year, over the next few weeks we're going to look at the Coalition against Insurance Fraud's 2015 Hall of Shame Inductees. The largest no-fault auto scheme ever charged has been taken down in New York. The gang made dodgy injury claims involving real and phantom car wrecks, worked with ten doctors and three lawyers to run a ring of sham clinics where patients were given physical therapy and acupuncture up to five times a week, billed insurers for fake crashes, and the attorneys coached patients on how to mimic symptoms of injuries before suit was filed against the carriers. Most of the gang pleaded guilty, and the ring leader, Zemlyansky, is awaiting sentencing and could receive a century in prison.