A massive scheme orchestrated by New York City-based Russian con artists, MS-13 gang members, crooked surgeons and greedy lawyers cost local businesses and insurers “billions of dollars,” a report revealed Sunday.
Low-income New Yorkers, especially recent immigrants, are being taken advantage of by shady lenders and law firms to fake accidents and undergo unnecessary surgeries in order to receive large insurance payouts. New York Post report.
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Leaders of the Hispanic gang MS-13 have been sending immigrants into the city with the express purpose of faking injuries at construction sites and on the streets, sources told the paper.
According to insiders, the gang “lures unsuspecting border crossers, drives them into the city, pays for their meals, gives them pocket money and pressures them into staging fake accidents.”
“They regularly recruit immigrants and homeless people, and in some cases actively arrange for them to come to New York,” a private investigator told the outlet.
After being pressured into tripping on sidewalks or falling off ladders at work sites, these immigrants hire lawyers and borrow money to pay for extensive medical treatment in order to collect huge payouts from construction companies and property owners’ insurance.
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One private investigator said staging planned falls and injuries has been “so successful for MS-13” that “rival gangs are now trying it too.”
But what MS-13 doesn’t have access to is the white-collar side of the fraud, which is why it’s reportedly working with Russian-owned clinics, lawyers and lenders who are working to secure insurance money.
Lou Savelli, a law enforcement expert and founder of the NYPD’s gang task force, said police uncovered a Russian ring that included doctors, personal injury lawyers, loan sharks and physical therapists operating out of the same office building.
“It was one-stop shopping. Everyone was in the same place,” Savelli said, adding that authorities had failed to prosecute the group.
The partnership between Russia and MS-13 is the “perfect marriage,” two former NYPD officers said. post.
Lawyers and doctors involved in this scam do this to get a large share of any winnings, as settlement amounts typically start at around $1 million or more.
“One Five is currently on the cheaper side,” an insurance lawyer told the outlet.
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Poughkeepsie insurance company Tradesman Program Managers, which covers several contractors and construction companies in the city, announced it paid out $142 million in claims in 2022, three times what it paid out in 2018. Tradesman claims it has been the victim of 650 fraud lawsuits over the past four years.
“We’re talking billions of dollars citywide,” said an insurance executive who asked not to be named.
Treisman and his underwriters filed lawsuits against numerous doctors and law firms for engaging in fraudulent practices.
“They’re training immigrants on what to do in these faked accidents,” said Kirk Willis, Tradesman’s lawyer. Said “And when people get injured, the allegedly injured people go to lawyers first, not doctors, and the lawyers then begin the process of filing fraudulent lawsuits,” the ABC7 reported in March.
Industry sources estimate that fraudulent insurance claims have increased threefold since the pandemic, contributing to New York City’s overall cost-of-living crisis.
“The rate goes up every year and every contractor is affected because they pass on the cost,” said Steven Katz, owner of the restoration company. “It affects every building. It’s an undisclosed tax.”
Manhattan surgeon Dr. Sadie Ribeiro was sentenced to three years in prison last March for performing back surgery as part of an insurance fraud scheme.
“Sadie Ribeiro abused her professional licenses and violated her oath to do no harm by performing numerous medically unnecessary invasive procedures in order to bolster the value of her fraudulent fall lawsuits,” said U.S. Attorney Damien Williams. Said“In carrying out their scheme, Ribeiro and his co-conspirators enriched themselves by preying on the most vulnerable in society, including the poor, drug addicts and homeless.”
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Peter Karkanis, the former chiropractor who blew the whistle on the Ribeiro case, testified against his former colleagues in court.
“It was always back injuries,” said Karkanis, who orchestrated more than 200 accidents over a four-year period and pocketed $2 million.
The downside for those who fake falls is that they have to undergo major surgery, often to fuse and screw healthy vertebrae back together, resulting in costly spinal surgery bills to insurance companies.
If someone hesitates to undergo fusion surgery, Karkanis argued, “their case will be dropped by scheming doctors and lawyers.”
Unfortunately, there are a lot of very desperate people who will risk permanently disabling themselves in order to get just a small portion of the winnings.
“Those who fake injuries can only receive $1,000 each.” post The report cited court testimony from one case.
