COALITION AGAINST INSURANCE FRAUD LISTS 2005’S WORST INSURANCE CON ARTISTS

Scalpel-wielding surgeons and klutzy grave robbers were among the eight worst insurance swindlers of 2005, according to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud. Elected to the Insurance 2005 Fraud Hall of Shame, these scam artists were among the year’s most-brazen and tragic insurance criminals. All had legal closure during 2005.

Some of the infamous winners are:

Surgery patients cut no breaks–Tam Vu Pham paid more than 5,000 healthy people to have surgeons operate on them so his Southern California medical clinic could fraudulently bill insurers more than $96 million. Surgeons performed colonoscopies, sweaty-palm surgery and other invasive procedures.

Truth decay–Dentist Alireza Asgari did hundreds of painful, worthless and botched surgeries on patients to steal nearly $370,000 in insurance money. The Wilkes-Barre, Pa. dentist did unneeded root canals, cavities and extractions.

Princess was pauper–Antoinette Millard pretended she was a Saudi Princess and hobnobbed with Manhattan society. Millard actually was the daughter of a Buffalo steelworker. She couldn’t afford the swanky living, and tried to raise cash by lying to Chubb Insurance that a thief stole $226,000 worth of her jewels.

Blight of the living dead–Molly and Clayton Daniels dug up the body of an elderly woman, dressed her in Clayton’s clothes, put her in his car, torched it and pushed it off a cliff near Georgetown, Texas. They faked Clayton’s death for $110,000 in life-insurance money. Clayton returned disguised as her new boyfriend.

Topics Fraud