U.S. Attorney Announces One of History's Largest Insurance Fraud Busts
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York unsealed two indictments charging 13 individuals in a $100 million healthcare fraud scheme linked to automobile insurance claims.
Federal prosecutors allege that the 13 people—including a New York City Police Department (NYPD) police officer, an attorney, and four doctors—schemed to defraud car insurance companies by bribing 911 operators and hospital employees to gain access to motor vehicle accident records to steer patients to corrupt medical providers. This scheme incited unnecessary and painful medical procedures with non-physician owning medical clinics.
In the first indictment, authorities allege that Bradley Pierre headed a fraud ring that took more than $70 million from no-fault insurers, using the law office of a family member who paid $4 million in referral fees for accident victims and five “no-fault facilities.” In addition to Pierre, Dr. Marvin Moy and Dr. William Weiner are accused of conducting unnecessary, painful electrodiagnostic tests on patients and of falsifying findings of injuries in magnetic-resonance imaging scans to boost referrals.
Healthcare providers that largely serve people injured in motor vehicle accidents remain a top tier focus for local, state, and federal law enforcement.
“No-fault accident schemes, like the one alleged today, can cost insurance companies millions of dollars in payouts to doctors and clinics who provide phony or unnecessary services to unwitting accident victims,” stated Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, “This cost is almost always passed to consumers of private insurance or subsidized programs established to help those in need. This is a dangerous game in which the penalties include federal criminal charges.”
In the second indictment, eight defendants are accused of conspiring to commit healthcare fraud, money laundering, bribery, obstruction of justice, false statements to federal authorities, and aggravated identity theft.
Utilizing a dozen fraudulently owned medical professional organizations, Alexander Gulkarov allegedly collected $30 million from insurers since 2014 and Attorney Robert Wisnicki is accused of laundering part of the proceeds.
Further, Federal Prosecutors allege Roman Israilov, Peter Khaimov, and Anthony DiPietro bribed 911 personnel, hospital technicians, and others for information on motor vehicle accident victims in Gulkarov's scheme. NYPD Officer Albert Aronov is accused of logging into department computers to collect and transmit confidential accident reports using an encrypted messaging app.
“The thirteen defendants charged in today’s indictments are alleged to have collectively perpetrated one of the largest no-fault insurance frauds in history, stated U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, “Schemes exploiting no-fault insurance laws – which ironically exist to make insurance more affordable – also result in higher costs, and unfairly burden all consumers in the auto insurance market.”
The FBI, the NYPD, the New York State Police, the New York City Department of Financial Services, the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office, and the National Insurance Crime Bureau, contributed to the investigation that remains ongoing.