How Are We Doing?
Some Current Statistics

Arrests and Convictions: First Quarter, 2003 – 2005

• The Frauds Bureau posted 174 arrests during the first three months of 2005, with a number of multi-agency investigations contributing to the total. In one major no-fault fraud investigation, 15 suspects– including four doctors, a dentist, a psychologist and an acupuncturist– and six companies– including a medical billing firm, a psychologist’s office, an acupuncture clinic and three medical clinics– were indicted in March. This 18-month-long investigation was conducted jointly by the Frauds Bureau, the Manhattan and Brooklyn DAs’ Offices, the NYPD’s Fraudulent Accident Investigation Squad and its Transit Bureau, New York City Transit’s Special Investigations Unit, the National Insurance Crime Bureau, the New York State Department of Education’s Office of the Professions, Chase Manhattan Bank and the Special Investigations Units of both GEICO and St. Paul’s Travelers Insurance Companies.

• In addition, an investigation by the Frauds Bureau, the Brooklyn DA’s Office, the Workers’ Compensation Board, New York City Transit, the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Postal Inspector’s Office led to the indictment in January of seven suspects who collected workers’ compensation benefits for work-related injuries while taking on jobs, or in one case, performing extensive physical activity on house repairs. Among those arrested were two New York City bus drivers and a detective assigned to New York City Transit.

• The number of convictions obtained by prosecutors in Frauds Bureau cases totaled 132 for the January–March 2005 period, versus 101 for the same period in 2004 and 104 in 2003.

• The Frauds Bureau received 6,964 reports of suspected fraud during the first quarter of 2005, down by about 9% from the prior year. The Bureau made significant progress during the past year in achieving a goal high on its list of priorities: Web-based fraud reporting. Effective April 30, 2005, insurers will no longer be able to connect to the New York State Insurance Department via the AT&T dial-up connection that had been used to report insurance fraud electronically since 2000. As requested by the industry, reporting is now available via the Internet. The long-term goal is to revamp the entire system to a Web-based design so that fraud reporting via the Web site will be only one of many functions. Under this new system, virtually all of the Bureau’s principal tasks will be Web-based, including case management, statistics tracking and preparation of the many reports for which the investigative staff is responsible. Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for a completely Web-based design were issued to vendors and the responses are currently being evaluated.