How Are We Doing?
Some Current Statistics

Arrests and Convictions: First Quarter, 2001 – 2003

• Arrests from Frauds Bureau investigations in the first quarter of 2003 totaled 244, versus 281 for the same period in 2002. The Bureau posted 115 arrests during the first three months of 2001.

• Among those arrested during the January–March 2003 period were six Rockland County landscapers charged with operating businesses without securing workers’ compensation and other insurance coverages in an effort to bypass New York State Law requiring all business owners to provide insurance to protect workers injured on the job. The Frauds Bureau and the Workers’ Compensation Board conducted a sting operation that included video surveillance showing the landscapers hiring and using about 20 immigrant day laborers.

• In addition, an investigation by the Frauds Bureau, the State Police and the Erie County DA’s Office led to the arrest of an insurance agent accused of taking more than $31,000 from four elderly clients, all of whom were in their 70s. Acting as their financial advisor, this suspect was supposed to reinvest the money but instead he deposited it into his personal account.

• Not to be discounted are the day-to-day investigations that brought about arrests of many individuals accused of workers’ compensation fraud, staged accidents, medical over-billing and various other charges.

 

• The number of criminal convictions obtained by prosecutors in Frauds Bureau cases reached 104 during the first three months of 2003, compared with 105 and 37, respectively, for the same period in the two prior years.

 

• The Frauds Bureau received just over 7,200 reports of suspected insurance fraud in the first quarter of 2003, up from 6,326 for the same period in 2002 and 5,188 in 2001. Currently about 55% of all fraud reports are received electronically. Progress continues on the development of a Web-based reporting system to complement the AT&T Global Network system currently in use.