View this article online: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2001/06/14/12379.htm
Three insurance companies have filed a civil lawsuit in Southern District Court in New York County, looking to combat a multi-million dollar fraud enterprise that set up shop in the Bronx, Queens and Long Island. Allstate, Progressive and Encompass are looking to obtain $36 million in damages from a total of 26 defendants, including doctors, dentists and an acupuncturist.
The four alleged ringleaders named in the suit are Dipak Nandi, M.D., Afsar Gul, Satrajit Rudra and Iftikhar Malik, who allegedly masterminded a major scheme with the idea of bilking the no-fault insurance system, insurance companies doing business in the state, and finally consumers.
The three companies in their allegations stated that during a four-year period, the alleged ringleaders formed a major network of phony medical corporations to fraudulently bill the insurers tens of millions of dollars in no-fault claims. In order to form the facilities, the defendants allegedly paid to have use of names and professional credentials of medical providers to avoid laws requiring medical facilities to be owned and operated by licensed professionals.
The alleged center of the operation was a Bronx-based facility that acted as a multi-care medical clinic. In order to generate a regular run of patients to the facility, the ring allegedly employed a number of “runners” who were responsible for staging accidents, recruiting accomplices to play the role of injured parties in the accidents and for directing the patients to the facility. The runners then obtained payments based on the amount of “victims” they delivered to the facility.