How Are We Doing?
Some Current Statistics
Arrests and Convictions: First Half, 2003 – 2005
The number of arrests resulting from Frauds Bureau investigations totaled 320 for the first six months of 2005, compared with 452 during the same period last year and 464 in 2003.
Contributing to the June – September 2005 total were the following:
- An investigation by the Frauds Bureau led to an arrest sweep in Queens in June that netted 14 individuals charged with various violations of the Workers’ Compensation Law. Sixteen other suspects are still being sought, including one who may be extradited from Texas if he does not return to New York and voluntarily surrender himself.
- A two-year investigation conducted jointly by the Frauds Bureau, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the State Police, the Buffalo and Cheektowaga Police Departments and the SIUs of eight insurance companies that were victims of the fraud resulted in the arrest of ten suspects accused of giving up their autos to a Lackawanna man to be totaled by fire or other means in order to obtain the insurance settlements. The “give-ups” took place between April 2000 and June 2003 and the eight insurers paid out more than $105,000 for the losses. Nine of the cars were recovered. The arrests took place in May.
- The co-owners of a logging company were accused of conspiring to falsely report to the Oswego County Sheriff’s Department in December 2001 that a 1992 Timberjack 450B logskidder valued at $41,000 was stolen from the woods in Oswego County. One of the defendants then filed a claim with Peerless Insurance Company which issued a check for $39,050 for the replacement value of the machine. However, during an investigation by Frauds Bureau, the logskidder was recovered where the defendants had stored it. The defendants were arrested and charged in April.
- An investigation by the Frauds Bureau and the NYPD’s Fraudulent Accident Investigation Squad led to the arrest in May of a Bronx man who, while acting in concert with others not apprehended as of this writing, allegedly staged an auto accident. As a result, $87,000 in bills was submitted to GEICO Insurance Company for unnecessary medical treatment.
The number of criminal convictions obtained by prosecutors in Frauds Bureau cases reached 235 in the first half of 2005, versus 157 in 2004 and 204 in 2003.
Reports of suspected fraud stood at 13,769 for the first six months of 2005. Reports totaled 14,313 for same period last year and 14,514 for 2003.
