A Miami attorney, Anett Lopez, has been charged with being involved in a personal injury protection (“PIP”) fraud scheme that allegedly accounted for nearly $1.5 million in financial loss to insurers. Ms. Lopez allegedly filed numerous lawsuits demanding payment for treatment of patients at Care Resources Group, LLC, a PIP clinic in Miami that, state prosecutors said, fraudulently operated under a straw ownership.

In a statement, the Department of Financial Services' Division of Investigative and Forensic Services (“DIFS”) said that an investigation revealed that Care Resources Group was a PIP clinic illegally operating under a straw owner, Dr. Mario Torres, in an effort to avoid the state's licensing requirements. According to the DIFS, as a result of that investigation, DIFS detectives arrested Dr. Torres and five other individuals who allegedly were involved in the clinic's allegedly illegal practices which, in addition to the straw ownership, included money laundering and the solicitation of motor vehicle accident victims.

The DIFS said that, with the support of the National Insurance Crime Bureau (“NICB”), it later investigated Ms. Lopez, who was the clinic's attorney who was responsible for the filing of numerous lawsuits on behalf of Care Resources Group. The DIFS said that Ms. Lopez filed lawsuits against more than a dozen separate insurance providers resulting in insurance payouts totaling $1,476,988.