Photo Credit: Gino Santa Maria
You might want to take a seat for this one. During a 5 year period spanning 2013 to 2018, three men were found guilty for running a massive statewide insurance scam. They cheated New York businesses and insurance companies out of $31.7 million in an organized and widespread slip and fall scheme. They recruited people sometimes from homeless shelters to injure themselves and would even receive training on how to stage their incidents from where to do it to “particular areas of their bodies, including the knees, shoulders, and/or back – body parts that, if injured, would reap high recoveries in personal injury lawsuits,” as court documents stated. They also had a ring of lawyers, chiropractors, and doctors willing to go along with this scheme.
The three men convicted were Bryan Duncan, Robert Locust, and Ryan Rainford with Peter Kalkanis, a former chiropractor being the ringleader. He previously plead guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. The convicted three were charged with conspiring to commit mail fraud and wire fraud. The Manhattan US Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman had fun describing the case saying the men “were tripped up by the justice system and have met their downfall.”
Insurance fraud is not an uncommon thing in this country and specifically New York state, a known hotspot. Coincidentally, earlier today I watched a video on the history of the Founder of Dell, who within his first year of being in business, just a college freshman, he pulled in $25,000 a month in the ’80s. That seems to be a generous income. And to think, he did that legally and without that much knowledge of what he was doing. Even if one insists on committing crime, going to the extent of $31 million for something you’re only going to get away with but for so long… especially dealing with homeless people. Someone is bound to tell at some point. Either way, they got what they deserved.
