Two Convicted in LA Auto Insurance Fraud Case
A Rancho Palos Verdes businessman and a Marina del Rey attorney were convicted March 11 of running an auto insurance fraud ring that stole more than $3 million, officials said.
Solomon Morris Davis, 61, was found guilty of 20 counts of insurance fraud and conspiracy, Deputy District Attorney Al Botello said.
A co-defendant, Robert Doran Belshaw, 56, was found guilty of five counts of money laundering and three counts of tax evasion, but was acquitted of insurance fraud.
The fraud ring was uncovered during a two-year investigation by the state Department of Insurance and the California Franchise Tax Board.
Prosecutors said Davis set up Total Medical Healthcare in the mid-Wilshire area under the name of his wife, Dr. Jody Hunter-Davis, but she did not practice medicine at the clinic and was not a suspect in the case.
As part of the fraud scheme, the signatures of doctors who worked part-time at the clinic were forged to substantiate inflated billings. Prosecutors said Davis recruited Belshaw to allegedly run a sham law practice to negotiate the fraudulent billings with insurance companies. The ring from September 1999 to April 2003 collected more than $3 million in fraudulent billings.
Davis is scheduled to be sentenced April 8 by Superior Court Judge Curtis Rappe and faces up to 24 years in prison. Belshaw faces up to 17 years in state prison.
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