Trenton-
Attorney General Zulima V. Farber today
forwarded the 2005 Office of Insurance Fraud
Prosecutor report and reference manual chronicling
New Jersey’s insurance fraud efforts
to Governor Jon S. Corzine and the New Jersey
Legislature. The statutorily-required report,
available electronically via the Office
of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Web Page,
highlights investigations, prosecutions,
and civil cases undertaken by the Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor in 2005. The report is
considered a significant resource in the
continuing effort to attack insurance fraud
in New Jersey and elsewhere by insurance
industry executives, government officials,
law enforcement officers, universities,
and citizens.
“This
year’s manual includes a guide to
effective strategies for investigating complex
insurance fraud cases, studies of fraud
trends and strategies for law enforcement
and the industry to stay ahead of emerging
fraud schemes, updates on court decisions
affecting insurance fraud litigation, and
recommendations for legislative and regulatory
reform,” said Attorney General Farber.
Division of Criminal Justice Director Gregory
A. Paw and Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta
Gooden Brown noted that since the OIFP’s
inception in 1998, the Office of Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor has screened over 66,000
reports of suspected insurance fraud, prosecuted
and convicted more than 1,000 insurance
fraudsters, sending 420 defendants to jail
for a total of 766 years, secured more than
$135 million in civil and criminal restitution,
and obtained nearly 5,000 civil fines totaling
nearly $27 million.
In 2005, the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor
recorded a 17 percent increase in insurance
fraud arrests, while criminal convictions
increased three percent. Noteworthy for
2005 were criminal case restitution orders
amounting to an unprecedented $88.9 million.
On the civil side, OIFP imposed $5.7 million
in civil fines, while civil judgments and
settlements netted $5.4 million.
As importantly, the report represents an
up-to-date reference manual utilized by
insurance industry executives, law enforcement
officers, the judiciary, government officials,
educators and others interested in combating
insurance fraud in New Jersey and elsewhere.
Reference materials provided in the report
have been cited as authoritative and relied
upon by insurance practitioners in various
disciplines, both nationally and internationally,
including a New Jersey Superior Court judicial
opinion, New Jersey Supreme Court pleadings,
and a college textbook.
Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Brown noted that
the public/private partnership approach
to fighting fraud, pioneered in New Jersey,
has provided significant results in the
detection, investigation, and prosecution
of insurance fraud. The Office of Insurance
Fraud Prosecutor was recognized in a recent
survey of the Coalition Against Insurance
Fraud, a Washington based independent non-profit
organization of consumers, government agencies
and insurers dedicated to combating insurance
fraud through public information and advocacy,
as the national leader in fighting insurance
fraud. The Coalition reported that out of
44 state fraud bureaus, New Jersey’s
office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor opened
more cases than any other state. The survey
also reported that New Jersey presented
the second greatest number of cases for
prosecution, logged the third greatest number
of fraud convictions and filed the greatest
number of civil actions. New Jersey’s
civil cases alone represented 82 percent
of all civil cases from all 44 states.
The 2005 report is available in an electronic
format and has been posted on OIFP’s
website at www.NJInsurancefraud.org.
In order to respond to requests from outside
government for the OIFP reference manual,
a hard copy version is available in limited
quantities.
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