The Golden Taxi
Read the full article at https://lnkd.in/gpaJhkkZ and see the full video at https://lnkd.in/g5wDZPpn and at https://lnkd.in/g_ZWpmc4 and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 4200 posts.
Mischa came to Houston in 1990 directly from the old Soviet Union. His dream was to be a cowboy. He became a cab driver.
Mischa picked up the English language quickly and memorized the convoluted streets of Houston. Within a year of his arrival, he could find with ease any hotel, restaurant or bar in the overgrown small town that was Houston, Texas.
Mischa made a reasonable living driving a cab, making the forty-five-minute run in from the airport at least three times a day. He bought a small three bedroom house outside Houston and was building his way toward the American dream. Mischa was not a criminal. He drove his cab twelve hours a day, six days a week to support himself and his young wife.
Mischa’s life changed when the dispatcher called him to the home of Sophie Mendelson. Sophie, an eighty-year-old Medicare patient, needed a ride to her doctor’s office, four miles from her home.
Upon arrival at the doctor’s office Sophie gave Mischa the information necessary to bill Medicare direct for his services. He complied and within weeks received a check from the US Treasury. It seemed all that Medicare required before it sent a check was information concerning the patient, a Medicare number, and whatever he wanted for the miles driven. Mischa satisfied Medicare if the fare reasonably related to the amount of miles he claimed.
Mischa was an intelligent man. He grew up in the Soviet Union, so he had no respect for government. In fact, as a child and as an adult living in the Soviet Union, he learned that the only way to survive was to deceive the ever-present government.
He was surprised to learn how unlike the Soviet government was the U.S. government. Rather than expecting deceit from its citizens, the U.S. government seemed to believe everything told to it by its residents.
The ride he gave Sophie Mendelson gave Mischa a plan to obtain a fortune. Mischa advised his dispatcher that he would volunteer to take all the Medicare, Medicaid, and welfare patient rides called into his cab. Since the other drivers did not like to wait for the payments from the government, Mischa received all of the calls. Within a month he had created a ledger containing 100 names, addresses and Medicare numbers.
With a calculator, a tax rate table and a pad of receipts, Mischa started on his journey to earn his first million dollars. He created receipts for five doctor visits for every one he actually drove. Mischa extended the distance to each doctor by a factor of three. In his first year he collected more than a million dollars from the United States, state and county governments. The next year his collections (since his number of welfare and Medicare recipients had increased in his ledger) had gone to two million dollars.
Mischa sold his three bedroom house and bought a 500-acre ranch with a four thousand square foot, six bedroom ranch house and stables. He began to live his dream of being a cowboy. Mischa bought 500 head of long horn steers and three quarter horses.
Mischa, the Russian cowboy, continued his profitable taxi business for three more years. An auditor for the State of Texas, Department of Social Services first noticed that Mischa’s cab company had taken a client to the doctor who had died a month before the trip.
The auditor then found each receipt submitted by Mischa to the State of Texas and Harris County. When he was done, the auditor found that in 1994, if the records were accurate, Mischa had driven the 1992 Chevrolet Caprice taxi cab a total of 1,250,000 miles.
The auditor concluded Mischa needed to drive more than 3,000 miles a day, sixteen hours a day, 365 days a year at more than 200 miles an hour to justify his claims. Belatedly, the government caught on to Mischa’s fraud.
The Texas Attorney General arrested, tried and convicted Mischa of defrauding the State of Texas and Harris County Texas. The Judge ordered that he pay a fine of $50,000 and to serve ninety days in jail. Because he was a first offender, Mischa was placed on probation for five years.
Mischa continues to live his dream as a cowboy, breeding Texas long horn cattle on his ranch outside Houston. The United States government, although advised of the crime by Harris County officials, refused to prosecute since the fraud would seriously embarrass the Medicare system.
Everyone involved, especially Mischa, believed that justice had been served.
ZALMA OPINION
When a person is convicted of insurance fraud there is no deterrence shown if the only punishment is to allow the criminal to be placed on probation and allow him or her to keep the fruits of the crime. Justice should never include allowing someone like Mischa to profit from the crime.
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(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].
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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 ...
Defendants Successfully Moved for Summary Judgment
Post 4854
Posted on September 30, 2026 by Barry Zalma
In Jeffrey Wayne Phillips v. Creative Website Studios, et al., No. 5:23-CV-568-BO-BM, United States District Court, E.D. North Carolina, Western Division (September 28, 2026) the Court needed to rule on the order and memorandum and recommendation (“M&R”) of the Magistrate.
Jeffrey Wayne Phillips had contracted with Creative Website Studios and SR Telecommunications for website and hosting services. He alleged that defendants repeatedly billed him for hosting periods he had already paid for and later took down his website. Phillips claimed the outage prevented him from bidding on U.S. government security contracts and sought roughly $300 million in consequential damages.
LAW
Under North Carolina law, fraud requires a false material representation or concealment, intent and effect of deception, resulting damage, and reasonable reliance. Obtaining property by false pretenses similarly requires an ...
Accused of 17 Counts Of Fraud Attempts to Keep Out Evidence of Crimes
Post 4853
Posted on September 29, 2026 by Barry Zalma
Court Refuses to Grant Most Motions in Limine
In United States Of America v. Seth Allen Aikens, II, Criminal No. 22-119, United States District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania (September 23, 2026) Defendant Seth Allen Aikens II faces thirty federal counts. The indictment alleges that, from about June 2016 through March 2020, Aikens solicited start-up businesses seeking websites, applications, hosting, payment processing, and related services. The Government estimated aggregate losses of approximately $1.3 million involving about eight charged customers.
The Government also sought to introduce evidence involving three uncharged persons. Robert Polonsky allegedly paid about $10,000 for web development, hosting, and advertising services but did not receive the promised core deliverables. Brandon Canwright allegedly paid approximately $1,877 for a website and related services that were not delivered and received no ...
Accused of 17 Counts Of Fraud Attempts to Keep Out Evidence of Crimes
Post 4853
Posted on September 29, 2026 by Barry Zalma
Court Refuses to Grant Most Motions in Limine
In United States Of America v. Seth Allen Aikens, II, Criminal No. 22-119, United States District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania (September 23, 2026) Defendant Seth Allen Aikens II faces thirty federal counts. The indictment alleges that, from about June 2016 through March 2020, Aikens solicited start-up businesses seeking websites, applications, hosting, payment processing, and related services. The Government estimated aggregate losses of approximately $1.3 million involving about eight charged customers.
The Government also sought to introduce evidence involving three uncharged persons. Robert Polonsky allegedly paid about $10,000 for web development, hosting, and advertising services but did not receive the promised core deliverables. Brandon Canwright allegedly paid approximately $1,877 for a website and related services that were not delivered and received no ...
