How Are We Doing?
Some Current Statistics

Arrests and Convictions: First Quarter, 2000 – 2001

• Arrests resulting from Frauds Bureau investigations in the first quarter of 2001 totaled 115, compared with 178 for the first quarter of last year.

• A sweep in Rensselaer County captured 13 suspects charged with various counts of insurance and welfare fraud. Among those arrested was a Colonie man accused of collecting more than $20,000 in disability benefits at the same time that he was working as the owner of a moving company that earned nearly $200,000. Other arrests in the first quarter included a couple charged with conspiring with "others" to have their car stolen and burned in order to collect the insurance settlement. This investigation is continuing in connection with the "others" involved.

• The number of criminal convictions obtained by prosecutors in Frauds Bureau cases totaled 37 for the January–March 2001 period, compared with 89 for the same period in 2000.

• The Frauds Bureau received nearly 9,600 reports of suspected insurance fraud during the first three months of 2001, an increase of more than 2,800 over the same period a year ago. About 300 insurers currently participate in the Bureau’s electronic fraud reporting system which makes reporting more thorough, accurate and effective.