Dennis Jay | Insurance Fraud News
Insurance fraud is an $80 billion a year industrial enterprise, churning out stolen insurance cash with the collective financial force of an overheated solar flare.
Say hello to the newest avatars of avarice, the freshly chosen members of the Insurance Fraud Hall of Shame … the No-Class of 2019.
The shamers are the year’s nine biggest moral pathogens and were dishonored by the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud.
Some shamers think big; their crime rings stole millions with steely audacity and bloated excess. Others are wobbly knuckleheads; their ethical DNA is missing genome coding for common sense. All shamers are convicted, yoked with lifetime criminal records.
These Tyrannosaurus Wrecks play a valuable deterrent role. They add a human face to the stolen insurance dollars. Their crimes call public attention to a brazen theft that many consumers view as a harmless prank. The shamers thus remind us that insurance fraud is a costly drain on all Americans.
Perhaps most important, the convicted shamers are a warning that highly trained fraud fighters are imposing their will. Their deterrent message: The risk isn’t worth the reward. Resistance is futile.
Fire flimflam. Wealthy socialite Claire Risoldi strafed her insurer with $20 million of swollen claims for ruined home possessions after her mansion mysteriously caught fire near Philadelphia.
Risoldi’s bling often wasn’t lost or didn’t exist — or she simply puffed up claims because she thought it was easy to get away with. Risoldi mostly invented $10 million worth of jewelry — blaming brave firefighters for stealing her rocks.
Then came an inflated $950,000 for hand-painted wall and ceiling murals that cost Risoldi a fraction of that amount. Not to mention, hundreds of thousands for draperies supposedly infused with crystals.
Insurance money flew into her bank accounts. Enough to buy more homes, six Ferraris, two Rolls Royces, a Cobra and other vehicles for her and her family members. Then came the final overdue bill: two years in prison thanks to the state attorney general’s effective courtroom pursuit.
Slip-and-fall stumbles. Street people and other down-and-outers were recruited to pretend they tripped on the sidewalks of New York in a $32 million strafing of insurers by a slip-and-fall ring.
Peter Kalkanis recruited hundreds of destitute people who needed spare cash. He coached them on how to fake injuries after tumbling on uneven or cracked pavement. Backs, knees or shoulders were badly hurt, Kalkanis’ troops told insurers. He forced some people to have life-altering — and unneeded — spinal fusions and other surgeries to inflate their claims even more.
Doctors on his payroll did bogus medical exams, and colluding attorneys pressured insurers in order to extract large settlements. Kalkanis awaits sentencing.
Singed scam. A roaring home arson fire began as a faulty $500,000 insurance theft. It ended with the arsonist heat-wrapped in searing flames, staggering from the burning home to die in Scranton, Pa.
Diomedes Ceballos hired his younger brother, Aurelio Ceballos DeLeon, to torch his home. Yet Aurelio knew nothing about fire. He lit gasoline with a lighter and was promptly engulfed by fire.
Aurelio lurched outside on fire; his clothes nearly all singed off. Somehow, Aurelio staggered to his apartment. A friend found him there, dying. Still, Aurelio wouldn’t call 911. His addled brain worried more about the police discovering the arson than about saving his own life. Aurelio died the next day.
Part of a firefighter’s arm was nearly torn off while combating the flames.
Diomedes bought his home for $86,000 and insured it for a $500,000 bonanza. His only windfall was a state jail term, up to 20 years.
For other non-construction related fraud cases continue reading this article.