New Jersey’s award-winning office created to root out insurance fraud is under scrutiny itself, with the state auditor probing allegations the insurance industry was billed about $4 million for employees who never worked on fraud cases.
The probe stems from a letter to a ranking state senator by a retired investigator from the state Division of Criminal Justice who said 43 employees had their salaries paid with insurance industry money but did little or no work on fraud cases. “We investigate doctors for submitting false bills to insurance companies, and we put doctors in jail for that. What’s the difference here?'” Edward Buttimore, the retired investigator, told The Star-Ledger of Newark.
Criminal Justice Director Vaughn McKoy, whose agency oversees the New Jersey Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor, denied the office misspent money.
State Auditor Richard Fair began investigating the insurance fraud prosecutor’s office in January at the behest of McKoy and the state attorney general after an anonymous letter that made claims similar to Buttimore’s was sent last fall to various government offices. Adler requested the auditor’s intervention after receiving Buttimore’s letter.
Buttimore included the names of the 43 employees, a list he said he compiled by cross-checking a criminal justice division roster with a list of names submitted to the insurance industry as working on fraud cases.
Criminal Justice spokesman John Hagerty said those employees could be providing services to the fraud prosecutor’s office that Buttimore is unaware of.
Was this article valuable?
Here are more articles you may enjoy.
Marsh McLennan Agency to Buy Fisher Brown Bottrell for About $316M 
GM Ends OnStar Driver Safety Program After Privacy Complaints 
UnitedHealth Says Hackers Possibly Stole Large Number of Americans’ Data 
FBI Says Chinese Hackers Preparing to Attack US Infrastructure From This Issue
