Trenton- Attorney General Peter C. Harvey
has issued the 2004 Annual Report for
the New Jersey Office of the Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor (OIFP). The Report details
investigations, prosecutions, and other
activities undertaken by the Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor during 2004.
“At
the end of 2003,the Coalition Against
Insurance Fraud, an independent Washington
D.C.-based insurance fraud monitor, announced
that the New Jersey Office of the Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor was the number one insurance
fraud prosecuting office in the United
States. The OIFP has maintained that success
into 2004, continuing as a national model
for insurance fraud fighting efforts,”
said Attorney General Harvey. “The
results are clear - the OIFP continues
to have a significant impact on insurance
cheats and, more importantly, OIFP’s
fraud-fighting efforts cleared the way
for the return of a major insurance company
to New Jersey. Our efforts continue to
make New Jersey a more friendly State
for insurance companies -- and a more
unfriendly environment for insurance cheats.”
The Annual Report highlights the prosecutions,
investigations and other activities undertaken
by the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor
(OIFP) in 2004. Most notably in 2004,
the number of those sentenced to jail
for committing insurance fraud significantly
increased over those sentenced to jail
terms in 2003. In 2004, criminal prosecutions
by OIFP resulted in the imposition of
jail sentences totaling 199 years of incarceration
- an increase of over 70% from the prior
record-breaking year.
Attorney General Harvey noted that gains
in the amount of restitution ordered for
victims were similarly noteworthy -- more
than doubling from 2003 to over $16 million
in 2004. Together with County Prosecutor
Insurance Fraud Units funded by OIFP,
New Jersey filed criminal insurance fraud-related
charges against 527 defendants, 93 of
whom were sentenced to a total of 258
years in jail. OIFP, alone, accounted
for over 79 percent of the jail time meted
out to those convicted of insurance fraud.
Division of Criminal Justice Director
Vaughn L. McKoy and Insurance Fraud Prosecutor
Greta Gooden-Brown noted that since its
inception in 1998, the OIFP has screened
over 60,000 reports of suspected insurance
fraud, imposed over 4,500 fines totaling
more than $22 million, obtained orders
for over $46 million in civil and criminal
restitution, pursued criminal prosecutions
resulting in the conviction of approximately
840 insurance fraudsters, and sent nearly
300 convicted defendants to jail for more
than 648 years.
Gooden-Brown said that the OIFP recorded
an impressive 100 percent conviction rate
in 2004. Among OIFP's more notable trial
convictions in 2004 were:
- the
guilty verdict in State v. Linda
Clements-Wright -- an insurance
company claims specialist who stole
nearly $600,000 in bogus claim settlement
monies;
-
the guilty verdict in State
v. Eliezer Martinez -- a Medicaid
provider who submitted nearly $140,000
in fictitious counseling claims to the
Medicaid Program; and
- the
successful infiltration, dismantling
and prosecution of an insurance fraud
ring headed by kingpin, Anhuar
Bandy sentenced to 29 years in state
prison. (This conviction represents
New Jersey’s first successful
prosecution of a staged accident ring
as a criminal racketeering enterprise.)
The OIFP continues to be recognized by
the national and international fraud-fighting
community as the fraud-fighting model
to be admired, studied, and emulated.
OIFP and its staff received awards in
2004 from the International Association
of Arson Investigators, the International
Association of Special Investigative Units,
the United States Social Security Administration,
and the New Jersey Vehicle Theft Investigators
Association. OIFP's public awareness campaign
garnered awards for its creativity and
effectiveness, and, once again, officials
from throughout the international fraud-fighting
community called upon OIFP for guidance
and assistance. Over the past six years,
OIFP has conducted hundreds of training
sessions benefitting thousands of law
enforcement and insurance industry professionals
engaged in fighting insurance fraud.
The Annual Report includes a comprehensive
guide to New Jersey’s insurance
fraud law, a best practices guide for
insurance company referrals to OIFP, a
guide to the new Insurance Fraud Detection
Reward Program, a discussion of the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability
Act (HIPAA) and its Privacy Rule, and
OIFP’s recommendations for legislative
and regulatory reform.
“As
we complete our sixth full year of operation
as New Jersey’s designated lead
agency in the State’s war on insurance
fraud, we are pleased that the OIFP continues
to redefine the manner in which government
attacks insurance fraud,” said Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor Gooden-Brown.