Two New York doctors, charged as part of a fraud ring last December, have pleaded guilty to “felony insurance fraud charges admitting to fraudulently embellishing and falsifying their reports of the examinations of undercover investigators who posed as accident victims,” according to a bulletin issued by the the New York State Insurance Department.
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown identified the defendants as Eleonora Zharov, 61, of 71-33 Perri Lane, Brooklyn and Tseday Bezabeth, 39, of 113-13 76 Road, Forest Hills. “Both defendants entered a plea of guilty to Insurance Fraud in the Fourth Degree, a Class E felony, before Supreme Court Justice Richard L. Buchter who sentenced them to three years of conditional discharge,” said the bulletin.
The two doctors are they first to be convicted of insurance fraud in New York State.”They also face disciplinary hearings before the New York State Department of Health’s Office of Professional Medical Conduct which could result in fines, suspensions or license revocations,” the report indicated.
District Attorney Brown stated that, “The defendants’ have betrayed the integrity of the medical profession. They embellished the undercover investigators’ injuries in an effort to claim insurance proceeds under the State’s no fault law. Insurance fraud is a crime that affects us all, mainly by increasing the auto insurance rates for honest drivers.”
NY’s Insurance Superintendent, Gregory V. Serio praised the work of all the law enforcement agencies involved, and vowed to continue the fight against the rampant no-fault insurance fraud which affects all New Yorkers.
The arrests last December of 112 individuals and four corporations charged in one of the largest no-fault automobile insurance rings ever uncovered in New York have so far resulted in 11 of the 19 individuals indicted in the scheme pleading guilty to various charges ranging from Enterprise Corruption to Insurance Fraud, all felonies.
The NYSID bulletin stated that “Five individuals are currently serving state jail sentences as a result of their pleas. One of those individuals, an NYPD Police Administrative Aide, pled guilty on January 22, 2002 to Enterprise corruption and admitted that she had created fake accident reports as part of the scheme. An additional 68 individuals charged in separate criminal complaints so far have pled guilty in the case.”
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