Zalma on Insurance
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Insurance Claims professional presents articles and videos on insurance, insurance Claims and insurance law for insurance Claims adjusters, insurance professionals and insurance lawyers who wish to improve their skills and knowledge. Presented by an internationally recognized expert and author.
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March 31, 2022
True Crime of Insurance Fraud Video Number 46

The Golden Tooth

Read the full article at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/true-crime-insurance-fraud-video-number-46-barry-zalma-esq-cfe and see the full video at https://rumble.com/vz1w5g-true-crime-of-insurance-fraud-video-number-46.html and at

and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 4150 posts.

Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE presents videos so you can learn how insurance fraud is perpetrated and what is necessary to deter or defeat insurance fraud.

A broken tooth is a tragedy to most people. To the waitress a broken tooth was the beginning of a career.

For fifteen years she waited tables in restaurants varying from small coffee shops to exclusive French restaurants. She saw, almost weekly, at least one customer trying to avoid paying for a meal. They would find flies in their soup or chunks of metal in their hamburger. Sometimes it was the fault of the restaurant and sometimes it was blatant fraud. Some people actually suffered injury because of inadequacies in the kitchen.

One Sunday afternoon, sitting in front of her television munching on a dish full of almonds, her right upper incisor snapped and she found half a tooth in her hand. No blood and no pain, just half a tooth in her hand and a jagged piece in her mouth.

If she were not creative, if she had not been frustrated at seeing her employers successfully defrauded over the years, she would have made an appointment with her dentist and had the tooth capped. The waitress was very creative. She saw the broken tooth as the start of a profit making venture. Since she had Sunday evening off and no specific plan, the waitress made a reservation for one at a fine restaurant where she had once worked. She took with her to the restaurant, safely tucked in a compartment of her purse, the broken tooth and a small piece of steel that she cut from the top of a coffee can.

Her efforts at insurance fraud were successful. However, she became greedy and eventually, her name and broken tooth story began to appear in insurance company databases. When she presented a claim to a restaurant insured by the same company, who had insured the last two restaurants to whom she had presented a claim, the adjuster refused to pay her. He reported to the fraud division of the insurance department in his state the fact that the waitress was apparently making fraudulent claims for the same tooth to various restaurants. The Fraud Division, noting that she was claiming only $650 concluded that the claim was too small to warrant the expenditure of investigative time. No one would investigate further, or prosecute, the waitress.

Rather than take further chances, she moved to another city where she continued in her new profession. She is probably having a fine meal in your town tonight.

(c) 2022 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.

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. He is available at http://www.zalma.com and [email protected].

Subscribe to Zalma on Insurance at locals.com https://zalmaoninsurance.local.com/subscribe.

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Write to Mr. Zalma at [email protected]; http://www.zalma.com; http://zalma.com/blog; daily articles are published at https://zalma.substack.com. Go to the podcast Zalma On Insurance at https://anchor.fm/barry-zalma; Follow Mr. Zalma on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bzalma; Go to Barry Zalma videos at Rumble.com at https://rumble.com/c/c-262921; Go to Barry Zalma on YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCysiZklEtxZsSF9DfC0Expg; Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://zalma.com/blog/insurance-claims-library/

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What else you may like…
Videos
Posts
September 18, 2026
Expert May Only Testify to What Experience Supports

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...

00:03:10
September 17, 2026
Convicted on 29 Tax-Refund-Fraud Counts

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 ...

00:05:23
September 14, 2026
Court Enforces Fifth Amendment & Refuses to Compel Answers

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 ...

00:05:14
2 hours ago
Short And Plain Statement Containing Enough Factual Matter To State A Facially Plausible Claim

If Grounds For Dismissal Are Apparent From The Face Of The Complaint, A Court May Also Dismiss The Case on The Court’s Own Motion

Posted on October 5, 2026 by Barry Zalma

Pro Se Plaintiff Failed to Make a Short and Plain Statement

Post 4856

In Tak Lun Ng v. United Financial Casualty Company, No. 26-cv-03136-LJC, United States District Court, N.D. California (September 28, 2026) Tak Lun Ng, proceeding pro se, sued United Financial Casualty Company over a March 2, 2021 automobile accident and the insurer’s March 24, 2021 refusal to pay him.

He appeared to assert breach of contract, fraud, negligence, premises liability, product liability, and related theories. United removed the action from state court and moved to dismiss.

Ng missed that deadline but later filed several documents, including a motion for leave to amend, all of which the court reviewed.

LAW

Under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a complaint must provide a short and plain statement containing enough factual matter to state a facially plausible...

post photo preview
2 hours ago
Short And Plain Statement Containing Enough Factual Matter To State A Facially Plausible Claim

If Grounds For Dismissal Are Apparent From The Face Of The Complaint, A Court May Also Dismiss The Case on The Court’s Own Motion

Posted on October 5, 2026 by Barry Zalma

Pro Se Plaintiff Failed to Make a Short and Plain Statement

Post 4856

In Tak Lun Ng v. United Financial Casualty Company, No. 26-cv-03136-LJC, United States District Court, N.D. California (September 28, 2026) Tak Lun Ng, proceeding pro se, sued United Financial Casualty Company over a March 2, 2021 automobile accident and the insurer’s March 24, 2021 refusal to pay him.

He appeared to assert breach of contract, fraud, negligence, premises liability, product liability, and related theories. United removed the action from state court and moved to dismiss.

Ng missed that deadline but later filed several documents, including a motion for leave to amend, all of which the court reviewed.

LAW

Under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a complaint must provide a short and plain statement containing enough factual matter to state a facially plausible...

post photo preview
October 02, 2026
Announcement About False Claims Act Settlement Results in Damages Suit

Employee Report of Fraud Results in Damages Suit After Qui Tam Suit Settled

No Statutory Hearing Right Arose Because No Dental Commission Complaint License Suspension, Revocation, Or Sanction Occurred.

Post 4855

Posted on October 2, 2026 by Barry Zalma

In Abbas Mohammadi et al. v. William M. Tong et al., No. AC 47598, Court of Appeals of Connecticut (September 29, 2026) Abbas Mohammadi owned and operated Columbia Dental, P.C., which provided dental services through multiple Connecticut offices; Columbia Oral Maxillofacial Imaging, LLC served as the billing entity.

From April 2012 to February 27, 2013, Columbia Dental employed Brittany Ames Mahoney as a dental assistant. During her employment, Mahoney claimed to have discovered certain billing irregularities, including, but not limited to, false and fraudulent reimbursement claims submitted to the Department of Social Services for services rendered to Medicaid beneficiaries. Mahoney filed a complaint and an affidavit in the United States District Court for the District of...

post photo preview
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