TRENTON
- Attorney General Anne Milgram and Criminal
Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced
that an attorney and his Essex County law
firm were sentenced today in an ongoing
insurance fraud investigation targeting
the illegal use of “runners”
and fake accidents to generate auto insurance
claims.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, Irwin B. Seligsohn, 71, of Kinnelon,
was ordered by Superior Court Judge Joseph
C. Cassini III in Essex County to serve
three years in state prison. As part of
his sentence, Seligsohn has previously paid
a $50,000 civil insurance fraud fine. The
law firm of Seligsohn, Goldberger &
Shinrod, formerly located on Northfield
Avenue in West Orange, has paid an addition
$50,000 in civil insurance fraud fines.
Seligsohn
was sentenced pursuant to his guilty plea
to second-degree conspiracy, third-degree
criminal use of runners, and third degree
tax fraud. The law firm of Seligsohn, Goldberger
& Shinrod, also pleaded guilty to second
degree conspiracy. The charges against Seligsohn
and his law firm were part of a Nov. 15,
2005 state grand jury racketeering indictment.
At
the Aug. 3 guilty plea hearing before Judge
Cassini, Seligsohn, a partner in the law
firm, admitted that he conspired with others
to pay runners to recruit claimants who
were not injured in auto accidents to become
his clients. Seligsohn admitted that he
represented several of those claimants and
filed insurance claims and lawsuits for
injuries on their behalf against insurance
companies. Seligsohn admitted that he should
have known and deliberately did not inquire
whether or not the claimants were injured,
or if the accidents claims were real. Seligsohn
also admitted that he committed tax fraud
by claiming the payments to the runners
were tax deductible investigative expenses,
when they were not.
In pleading guilty to conspiracy through
its attorney, the law firm, which is a corporation,
admitted that it aided the payment of runners
in exchange for bringing clients to the
law firm, aided the submission of insurance
claims for fictitious accidents, and aided
tax fraud resulting from the illegal itemized
deductions.
Cases
against several other alleged runners and
alleged phony claimants remain pending in
court.
State
Investigator Ned Shaw, Analyst Kathy Ratliff
and Deputy Attorney General Andrew C. Fried
were assigned to the investigation. Fried
represented the Office of Insurance Fraud
Prosecutor at the sentencing.
“The
illegal use of runners to procure patients
and clients drives up the cost of insurance
in this state,” said Prosecutor Brown.
“As in this case, runners often urge
people who are not injured to be treated
for injuries and submit false accident claims.
We will vigorously enforce New Jersey’s
statute making it a crime to employ runners.”
Prosecutor Brown noted that some important
cases have started with anonymous tips.
People who are concerned about insurance
cheating and have information about a fraud
can report it anonymously by calling the
toll-free hotline 1-877-55-FRAUD or visiting
the Web site www.njinsurancefraud.org. State
regulations permit an award to be paid to
an eligible person who provides information
that leads to an arrest, prosecution and
conviction for insurance fraud.
The
Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor was
established by the Automobile Insurance
Cost Reduction Act of 1998. The office is
the centralized state agency that investigates
and prosecutes both civil and criminal insurance
fraud, as well as Medicaid fraud.
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