“Insurance Fraud Volume I” Second Edition
INSURANCE FRAUD IS EPIDEMIC
Barry Zalma
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Second Edition of "Insurance Fraud" Now Available
Read the full article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/insurance-fraud-volume-i-second-edition-barry-zalma-esq-cfe and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 4100 posts.
Information Needed to Defeat or Deter Insurance Fraud
Posted on March 13, 2022 by Barry Zalma
Insurance fraud continually takes more money each year than it did the last from the insurance buying public. There is no certain number. No one knows the amount that is taken by insurance fraud because most attempts at insurance fraud succeed. Estimates of the extent of insurance fraud in the United States range from $87 billion to more than $300 billion every year. The only certainty is that it is a serious crime that bleeds the insurance industry sufficiently to have states compel insurers to create special investigative units (SIU’s) to investigate, deter and defeat insurance fraud to assist the state in its efforts to prosecute the crime.
Insurers and government backed pseudo-insurers can only estimate the extent they lose to fraudulent claims. Lack of sufficient investigation and prosecution of insurance criminals is endemic. Most insurance fraud criminals are not detected. Those that are detected do so because they became greedy, sloppy and unprofessional so that the attempted fraud becomes so obvious it cannot be ignored.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) estimated that almost 25% of the bodily injury claims related to auto crashes are bogus. Property and casualty claims against auto insurance are not much better, coming in at around a 10% fraud rate.
Insurance fraud is not limited to the US. In Britain fraud costs the British economy amounts estimated in billions of British pounds. Since the amount of fraud actually detected is a small portion of what was actually found, the estimates published are little more than an educated guess.
Insurers must also generate a close relationship with the state insurance department’s fraud division or fraud bureau, local police agencies, the FBI, the ATF, the Postal Investigation Service, the local fire department’s arson unit, local prosecutors, and the local U.S. Attorneys if they are to have any chance to reduce the effect of insurance fraud. Insurers should also work to make the general public, state legislators, state governors, congress members and U.S. Senators, and the Attorney General of the United States aware of the effect insurance fraud has on the public at large and the insurance industry.
Wherever insurance is written insurance fraud exists. It is an equal opportunity fraud committed by people of every race, religion or national origin.
No matter how seriously the insurers work to prove fraud the authorities often ignore them. In response, police and prosecutors complain that the insurers do nothing that police and prosecutors can use to prosecute the crime of insurance fraud while insurers complain that prosecutors ignore them when they present evidence of a fraud. There is truth in both complaints. Insurers, although compelled by statute to investigate potential insurance fraud and to present the results of their investigations to prosecutors, they are not trained as police officers. Insurance company employees, whether claims adjusters or SIU investigators are not trained to present evidence of a crime to a court. They can only advise professional insurance fraud investigators at the state departments of insurance or state police agencies who must then investigate further to obtain evidence that is sufficient for a charge of insurance fraud or to convince a Grand Jury to issue an indictment.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Insurance Fraud Is Epidemic.
Measuring Insurance Fraud
What Is Insurance Fraud?.
Arson For Profit.
Soft Fraud.
Hard Fraud..
Liability Insurance.
Interpretation Of Insurance Contracts.
Ethics & The Insurance Fraud Investigation.
Uberrimae Fidei – Utmost Good Faith.
Fraud By Professionals.
First Party Property Fraud.
Health Insurance Fraud.
Insurance Fraud Is A Crime.
Fraud Created By Legal Professionals.
Fraud In The Acquisition Of Insurance.
Fraud In The Presentation Of A Claim.
Investigating Fraud.
Arson For Profit Investigation.
Investigation Methods.
Evaluation Of Medical Records As Part Of A Fraud Investigation.
About the Author.
Available as a Kindle book, a paperback or a hardcover
© 2022 – Barry Zalma
Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE, now limits his practice to service as an insurance consultant specializing in insurance coverage, insurance claims handling, insurance bad faith and insurance fraud almost equally for insurers and policyholders.
He practiced law in California for more than 44 years as an insurance coverage and claims handling lawyer and more than 54 years in the insurance business.
Subscribe to “Zalma on Insurance” at https://zalmaoninsurance.locals.com/subscribe and “Excellence in Claims Handling” at https://barryzalma.substack.com/welcome.
You can contact Mr. Zalma at https://www.zalma.com, https://www.claimschool.com, [email protected] and [email protected] . Mr. Zalma is the first recipient of the first annual Claims Magazine/ACE Legend Award.
You may find interesting the podcast “Zalma On Insurance” at https://anchor.fm/barry-zalma; you can follow Mr. Zalma on Twitter at; you should see Barry Zalma’s videos on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCysiZklEtxZsSF9DfC0Expg/featured; or videos on https://rumble.com/zalma. Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://zalma.com/blog/insurance-claims–library/ The last two issues of ZIFL are available at https://zalma.com/zalmas-insurance-fraud-letter-2/
Insurance Expert May Not Testify to Speculative and Contains Unsupported Conclusions.
Posted on September 18, 2026 by Barry Zalma
See the full video at and at https://rumble.com/v7fmifw-expert-may-only-testify-to-what-experience-supports.html
In Michele A. Over, and The Estate Of Paul R. Over v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, and State Farm Fire And Casualty Company, Civil Action No. 23-cv-02243-PAB-STV, United States District Court, D. Colorado (September 14, 2026) Michele and Paul Over sued State Farm Fire and State Farm Auto over hail-damage and stolen-vehicle claims.
The operative dispute concerned State Farm Auto’s motion to exclude or limit opinions from plaintiffs’ insurance-industry expert, Aaron Castillo. Castillo.
Law
The proponent of expert testimony must establish by a preponderance of the evidence that an expert is qualified and that the opinions are helpful, sufficiently grounded, and reliably derived and applied. Experience-based opinions must explain how the...
150 Months in Prison for Tax Fraud
Post 4846
Posted on September 17, 2026 by Barry Zalma
See the full video at https://lnkd.in/g8rh3JBX and https://lnkd.in/gmkdy-9C, In United States Of America v. Thomas Addaquay, Nos. 25-10609, 25-10611, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit (September 9, 2026) the Eleventh Circuit affirmed all challenged convictions, the 150-month aggregate sentence, and the challenged $4,123,474.55 restitution award.
FACTS
In United States Of America v. Thomas Addaquay, United States Of America v. Thomas Addaquay, Nos. 25-10609, 25-10611, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit (September 9, 2026) the Eleventh Circuit affirmed all challenged convictions, the 150-month aggregate sentence, and the challenged $4,123,474.55 restitution award.
FACTS
Thomas Addaquay controlled United Consolidated Accounting and Business Services (UC), nominally a check-cashing business.
The government proved a three-stage tax-refund scheme that converted the resulting refund checks into usable funds through ...
Major Fraud Perpetrator Asserts Fifth Amendment Privilege to Avoid Prosecution
Post 5489
Posted on September 14, 2026 by Barry Zalma
Fraudster Refuses to Answer Questions About His Alleged Fraud
See the full video at https://lnkd.in/gvicAMDr and at https://lnkd.in/gvicAMDr
In Great American Insurance Co. v. Gemstone Property Management, LLC, et al., No. 23-cv-9100 (LJL), United States District Court, S.D. New York (September 8, 2026) Great American Insurance Company alleged that it was defrauded through a scheme in which Subin Associates, LLP recruited individuals to stage construction-site injuries, arranged unnecessary medical treatment and litigation funding, and pursued fraudulent personal-injury claims.
Luis Manuel Garcia Salcedo, resulted in a $6 million settlement. Non-party Jose Hernandez allegedly worked as an assistant manager at Subin, operated Hernandez Associates, and owned litigation-funding companies that shared office space with Subin and provided services to its clients.
After Great American ...
Payment of Fines & Completion of Probation Reinstates Right to Vote
Post 4576
Posted on November 5, 2026 by Barry Zalma
To Restore Voting Rights The Felon Must Pay Fines of $546.00
In Florida Supreme Court Mediator Ethics Advisory Committee, ETH F-26-377, No. F-26-377 (October 29, 2026) citizen unnamed and to Ron Desantis Governor, Cord Byrd the Secretary of State Florida Division of Elections provided an advisory opinion to a convicted felon about his right to vote:
To: [redacted] We received your request for an advisory opinion. You indicate that you have one or more felony convictions and request whether you are eligible to vote, including whether you have any outstanding legal financial obligations under section 98.0751, Florida Statutes, and, if so, a statement of the amount that must be paid to make you eligible to vote, and an explanation of how the amount was calculated.
The Division hereby responds to your request pursuant to its legal authority under section 106.23(2), Florida Statutes, and Florida ...
Administrative Review Permits the Agency to Apply its Expertise
Post 4574
In Erwin Jordan Castro Valdez v. Warden, Otay Mesa Detention Center, No. 26-cv-06147-BAS-JLB, United States District Court, S.D. California (October 30, 2026) Castro Valdez, a Cuban national paroled into the United States, was arrested on June 23, 2026, for alleged insurance fraud, grand theft, and making a false report to law enforcement. In his first habeas action, the district court ordered a bond hearing within fourteen days to determine whether the changed circumstances justified revoking his parole.
An Immigration Judge subsequently denied bond because of his pending state criminal case. Castro Valdez filed a second petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2241, challenging that determination and requesting immediate release without first appealing to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).
LAW
According to the supplied text, § 2241 does not expressly require administrative exhaustion, but courts impose exhaustion as a prudential requirement. ...
Insured’s Ordered to Pay Insurer for Fraud by the Insureds
Post 4573
Posted on November 3, 2026 by Barry Zalma
In The Prudential Insurance Company Of America v. Carol Gardina and George Gardina, No. 6:23-cv-1125-JSS-DCI, United States District Court, M.D. Florida, Orlando Division (October 22, 2026).
THE JURY TRIAL AND VERDICT
Plaintiff sued Defendants for numerous causes of action stemming from its allegations that Defendants fraudulently collected benefits under their long-term care insurance policies. Plaintiff's case proceeded to a nine-day jury trial, after which the jury found Defendants liable for fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent concealment, and civil conspiracy.
The jury also found Defendant Carol Gardina liable to Plaintiff for $1,930,129 in compensatory damages and Defendant George Gardina liable to Plaintiff for $12,496 in compensatory damages and $20 in punitive damages. Thereafter, the court entered judgment in Plaintiff's favor and awarded Plaintiff $1,930,129 in compensatory damages from...
