State AG Snares 16 In Fraud Scheme
Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced the arrests of 16 individuals-most of whom are New York City residents- for their roles staging automobile accidents to fraudulently receive insurance payouts.
According to the attorney general, who made the announcement in a Jan. 24 press release, the defendants submitted fraudulent claims totaling more than $330,000 after six staged accidents in which they intentionally crashed into city buses, livery cabs and rented vehicles they drove.
They face multiple felony counts of insurance fraud, grand larceny and falsifying business records, as well as misdemeanor conspiracy to commit those crimes.
“This all-too-common staged accident scheme puts innocent lives in danger so perpetrators can rip off the system to make a quick buck,” Schneiderman stated. “Breaking up these criminal operations means safer streets and a fairer market for consumers whose insurance premiums skyrocket as a result of this kind of fraud. My office and our partners in law enforcement will continue to crack down on criminals who terrorize innocent New Yorkers on the road and sock consumers with increased car insurance premiums.”
The complaints filed charge the defendants with conspiring to create accidents to collect illegal payouts. Some of the defendants allegedly arranged and participated in the accidents and some agreed to be passengers in the vehicles.
Five of the accidents occurred in Brooklyn and one on Staten Island between October 2009 and June 2011:
– On June 29, 2011, five defendants boarded a New York City bus driven by an unsuspecting driver. Once the defendants were all on the bus, a rented U-Haul crashed into the bus at Ashford Street and New Lots Avenue in Brooklyn.
The defendants on the bus-Jermain Clarke, 30; Kevin Evans, 27; Mosier Jules, 26; Randolph Millington, 27; and Erving Scott, 30, all of Brooklyn-then pretended to be injured in the crash.
– On May 11, 2010, the defendants agreed to crash two vehicles into each other, one of which was a rented U-Haul truck. One defendant rented the U-Haul truck and intentionally crashed it into the other vehicle at Dumont Avenue and Grafton Street in Brooklyn. The drivers- Troy Hall, 36, and Michael Pugh, 36, both of Brooklyn-then pretended to be injured.
– On Apr. 25. 2010, two defendants boarded a New York City bus knowing that arrangements had been made for someone to crash into it. Once the vehicle, a rented U-Haul truck, crashed into the bus, at Hegemon Street and Bristol Avenue in Brooklyn, two defendants-Mayra Oliveras, 33, and Stacia Steele, 21, both of Brooklyn-pretended they sustained injuries.
– On Jan. 25, 2010, the defendants agreed to crash two private vehicles into each other.
One vehicle intentionally struck the other on Blake Avenue between Strauss and Herzl streets in Brooklyn and the drivers-Douglas Carthen, 69, of Brooklyn, and Rayvon Kellman, 33, of Queens-and a passenger- Stephanie Cabiness, 50, of Brooklyn-then pretended to be injured.
– On Nov. 28. 2009, the defendants conspired to crash a rented vehicle into an unsuspecting livery cab driver. Defendants are a driver and a passenger of a rented Enterprise car that crashed into a livery cab at Park Place and Brooklyn Avenue in Brooklyn. Both the driver, Kanona Martinez, 41, of Staten Island, and the passenger, Kevin Simington, 23, of Brooklyn, then pretended to be injured.
– On Oct. 29, 2009, another set of defendants, the driver and a passenger, conspired to crash a van into an unsuspecting livery cab driver. The defendants-Michael McAtee, 29, of New York, and David Ross, 29, of Binghamton, N.Y.-intentionally reversed into the livery cab at Vanduzer Street and Victory Boulevard on Staten Island and then pretended to be injured.
In New York State, a person injured in a motor vehicle accident is automatically covered by the Comprehensive Motor Vehicle Insurance Reparations Act, commonly referred to as the No-Fault law. No-Fault insurance carriers are required to provide reimbursement for a wide range of medical and health services for injuries related to car accidents, up to $50,000 per person.
In addition to medical coverage, a victim in a motor vehicle accident may be eligible to recover money from an insurance carrier for a bodily injury lawsuit stemming from injuries resulting from the accident.
Most of the defendants allegedly agreed to participate in the accidents in exchange for money up front and the promise of money from a settlement in a bodily injury lawsuit after they were treated at a Brooklyn medical clinic. These defendants filled out insurance forms that included false information about the accident and the defendants’ purported injuries- including claims of back, head, shoulder and knee pain.
The clinics where these defendants were treated then requested, and often received, reimbursement from insurance carriers. Only two of the defendants ended up being awarded money from bodily injury lawsuit settlements-totaling $13,500.
All defendants were arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court. The defendants submitted a combined total of $331,993.08 in fraudulent claims.
These arrests are the culmination of a joint, ongoing investigation into staged accidents and no-fault insurance fraud by the Office of the Attorney General and the New York City Police Department (NYPD) in conjunction with the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS).
This case was investigated by NYPD Detectives Patrick Donohue and Christopher George under the supervision of Lieutenant Edwin Martinez, Captain Donald Boller and Inspector Brian O’Neil. The Attorney General thanks DFS Superintendent Benjamin M. Lawsky, as well as Executive Deputy Superintendent Joy Feigenbaum, Director Frank Orlando and Investigator Arthur Masinksi of DFS’s Financial Frauds and Consumer Protection Division. The Attorney General thanks the National Insurance Crime Bureau, Allstate Insurance Company, American Transit Insurance Company, Elco Services, Farmers Insurance Company, Fiduciary Insurance Company, GEICO Insurance Company, Praetorian Insurance, Repwest Insurance Company and U-Haul for their assistance in the investigation.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Frances Impellizzeri and Senior Investigative Counsel Nina Sas of the Auto Insurance Fraud Unit under the supervision of Deputy Bureau Chief Stephanie Swenton and Bureau Chief Gail Heatherly of the Criminal Prosecutions Bureau and Executive Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Justice Kelly Donovan. Investigators Adrian Klapper, Dennis Laverty and Elsa Rojas, Analysts Danyelle Ritter and Yuriy Kurbatov and Auditor Alex Ozechowski worked on the case under Supervisor Edward Keegan, Deputy Chief Leonard D’Alessandro and Chief Dominick Zarrella of the Investigations Bureau.
The charges against the defendants are accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
