Latest Fraud Headlines
All the headlines from our Fraud Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Retired Pennsylvania Judge Wants Fraud Conviction Dismissed
Jan 26 2009 // A retired Pennsylvania Superior Court judge wants a federal judge to reverse his conviction or entirely dismiss insurance fraud charges stemming from $440,000 he collected in an August 2001 traffic accident. Attorneys for...
Insurance in Times of Financial Crisis
Jan 25 2009 // Fiduciary liability typically involves an employee suing an employer for not offering employee options for investing in a 401K plan, and the law weighs heavily in favor of the employee in these cases. The current financial...
Continuing Financial Crisis Leads to Vacant Properties, Vulnerable to Vandalism, Metal Theft
Jan 25 2009 // Brooklyn, N.Y. — Thieves who broke the locks on an unoccupied apartment building stripped the entire building of its copper piping, valued at more than $30,000. Las Vegas — The entire electrical system,...
FBI Reports Drop in Crime Including Property Crimes and Arson
Jan 25 2009 // The nation experienced a 3.5 percent decline in violent crime and a 2.5 percent decline in property crime for the first six months of 2008, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Violent crime was down in all...
New Mexico Legislature Weighs Insurance Fraud Bills
Jan 23 2009 // The New Mexico Legislature is evaluating two insurance fraud bills this session. Both SB 117 and SB 118 were introduced by Republican Sen. Carroll H. Leavell. SB 117 would allow courts to aggregate six months of faluse...
Iowa Landlord Faked Insurance Claims to Cheat Tenants Out of Deposits
Jan 21 2009 // Iowa authorities said that Robert K. Miell was tried and convicted on Jan. 9 on income tax fraud in United States District Court in Des Moines. Last week, Miell had pled guilty to 18 counts of mail fraud relating to an...
Auto Thefts Down in Tulsa
Jan 20 2009 // Police in Tulsa, Okla., say that a 30 percent drop in auto thefts last year is largely due to officers targeting thieves who snatch cars to make quick cash from scrap metal. Roughly 2,500 vehicles were reported stolen in...
Motorists Mutual Enhances Identity Theft Protection for Businesses
Jan 16 2009 // Motorists Mutual Insurance Co. is helping its commercial policyholders guard against identity theft and minimize the financial impact if a breach occurs. The company introduced its Security Breach Response Service provided...
Boudreaux Appointed to Head Louisiana Insurance Fraud Unit
Jan 16 2009 // Louisiana Commissioner of Insurance Jim Donelon has named Paul Boudreaux Jr. as the new director of the Insurance Fraud Section at the Louisiana Department of Insurance. Boudreaux replaces Trent Beach who recently took the...
Workers’ Comp Claim on Wrong Eye Leads to Fraud Charges in New York
Jan 16 2009 // A New York man who hurt his eye on the job faces insurance fraud charges after authorities say he falsely filed for workers compensation benefits — on the wrong eye. Authorities say Clyde Stroman, 53, of Elmira,...
Hawaii Auto Insurance Fraud Convictions Increase 61%
Jan 14 2009 // The Insurance Fraud Investigation Unit of the Hawaii State Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs experienced a 61 percent increase in criminal convictions for motor vehicle insurance fraud in 2008 over the previous...
FBI Reports Drop in Crime Including Arson
Jan 12 2009 // The nation experienced a 3.5 percent decline in violent crime and a 2.5 percent decline in property crime for the first six months of 2008, according to the federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Violent crime was down in...
Mass. Court: Professional Liability Policy Excludes Document Theft
Jan 11 2009 // A document management company that allowed a client’s sensitive documents to be taken is not covered by a professional liability policy with an intellectual property exclusion, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial...
Driven to Desperation, More Insureds Illegally Dumping Cars
Jan 11 2009 // The economic downturn is spurring anxious drivers to fraudulently dump unwanted vehicles for insurance money, according to research by the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud. Officials in nearly a dozen state and local...
Economy and Climate Change Top New Year Agenda
Jan 11 2009 // For the moment the economic recession is driving the global stagecoach, while climate change is riding shotgun, but it’s not as bad as it could be. Reports from Europe point to the fact that the P/C industry’s...
Corporate Fraud Scandals Can Detonate Anywhere
Jan 9 2009 // When it comes to corporate fraud scandals, nowhere is safe. Revelations of a $1 billion fraud at Indian IT firm Satyam Computer Services do not point to a higher systemic risk of accounting scandals in India, or even in...
Four in Florida Charged in $1 Billion Viatical ‘Ponzi’ Scheme
Jan 6 2009 // Four Mutual sales agents with Mutual Benefits Corp., a viatical and life settlement company, for their alleged involvement in a scheme that officials say raised more than $1.25 billion from more than 30,000 investors...
Lloyd’s Analyzes Madoff’s Impact on Professional Liability Coverage
Jan 2 2009 // The ripple effect from Bernard Madoff ‘s Ponzi scheme will inevitably flow across the Atlantic concludes an article on the Lloyd’s web site (www.lloyds.com). For many years Madoff’s fund paid high...
Association of British Insurers Warns of Increasing ‘Front End Fraud’
Dec 31 2008 // The Association of British Insurers has issued a warning that, “people are increasingly putting their insurance cover at risk by cheating to get a better deal.” The ABI said its members, which include most of...
SoCal Hospital Employee Accused of ID Theft
Dec 30 2008 // Officials at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles say more than 1,000 patients have had personal information taken by a former employee, who is alleged to have used the identities to steal from insurance...
