Ohio Man Sentenced to Jail for WTC Fraud

October 1, 2002

A Court in Butler County, Ohio sentenced Ajay Chawla to serve one year in jail and pay a $1,500 fine following his conviction last August on charges of filing an insurance claim with CNA, stating that his father was missing and presumed dead following the Sept. 11 attack on the WTC.

The Ohio Department of Insurance, CNA Insurance, and Westchester Township Police Department investigators determined in early October last year that Chawla’s father was not in New York on September 11, 2001, and was actually alive and living in India. Chawla later tried to withdraw his fraudulent death claim.

He was convicted August 16 in Butler County Common Pleas Court on one count of insurance fraud, a third-degree felony; one count of attempted aggravated theft by deception, a fourth-degree felony; one count of telecommunications fraud, a fifth-degree felony; and one count of falsification, a first-degree misdemeanor. He originally faced up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $10,000 for the insurance fraud conviction.

Commenting on the case Ohio Insurance Director Lee Covington stated that “Insurance fraud is not a victimless crime. It is a crime that costs each American family nearly $1,000 in higher insurance premiums and increased costs for goods and services each year. I am pleased that the court recognized the seriousness of this crime and appreciated the deterrent effect of a jail sentence for this attempt to defraud an insurance company.”

The report from the Directors office noted that according to the New York Department of Insurance, more than 50 cases nationwide are being investigated for fraudulent claims connected to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, but that Chawla’s was the only known case in Ohio.

Topics Fraud Ohio

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