ZIFL – Volume 28 Number 14
Read the full article at https://lnkd.in/gbj6c5R5; https://lnkd.in/gj6gmEHf, See the full video at https://lnkd.in/gF3WAQVQ and at https://lnkd.in/gtShaQNc and at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 4800 posts.
Zalma’s Insurance Fraud Letter – July 15, 2024
Post 4834
The Source for the Insurance Fraud Professional
Subscribe to ZIFL at https://vis
itor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001Gb86hroKqEYVdo-PWnMUkcitKvwMc3HNWiyrn6jw8ERzpnmgU_oNjTrm1U1YGZ7_ay4AZ7_mCLQBKsXokYWFyD_Xo_zMFYUMovVTCgTAs7liC1eR4LsDBrk2zBNDMBPp7Bq0VeAA-SNvk6xgrgl8dNR0BjCMTm_gE7bAycDEHwRXFAoyVjSABkXPPaG2Jb3SEvkeZXRXPDs%3D
The Source for the Insurance Fraud Professional
Zalma’s Insurance Fraud Letter (ZIFL) continues its 28th year of publication dedicated to those involved in reducing the effect of insurance fraud. ZIFL is published 24 times a year by ClaimSchool and is written by Barry Zalma. It is provided FREE to anyone who visits the site at http://zalma.com/zalmas-insurance-fraud-letter-2/ This issue contains the following articles about insurance:
Present as Real a Free and Imaginary Oral Estimate as Proof of Claim is Fraud
False Swearing & Fraud in Claim Presentation Voids Policy
Never Lie To Your Insurer About The Extent Of Damage
Too many people believe that having a claim disputed by an insurance company is an invitation to get rich by suing an insurance company. People and some lawyers believe they can do anything to get money from an insurance company to profit from a claim and if they are caught, they will still recover the true amount of the loss. The USDC in Illinois put the lie to that assumption and an insured, trying to inflate a claim with what turned out to be a fake bid, was sufficient to make the insured take nothing and order it to pay back to the insurer what was paid before the dispute.
Read the full July 15, 2024 issue of ZIFL http://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ZIFL-07-15-2024.pdf
Criminal Investigation of Insurance Fraud Without Indictment Not Grounds for Stay of Civil Action
Fraud Bureau Investigates
Defendant Kith Furniture, LLC’s moved to stay the proceedings brought by Liberty Mutual in Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Company v. Kith Furniture, LLC, No. 6:23-cv-01130-LSC, United States District Court, N.D. Alabama, Jasper Division (July 1, 2024) and the District Court resolved the dispute.
Read the full July 15, 2024 issue of ZIFL http://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ZIFL-07-15-2024.pdf
More McClenny Moseley & Associates Issues
This is ZIFL’s thirty first installment of the saga of McClenny, Moseley & Associates and its problems with the federal courts in the State of Louisiana and what appears to be an effort to profit from what some Magistrate and District judges indicate may be criminal conduct to profit from insurance claims relating to hurricane damage to the public of the state of Louisiana.
May 24, 2024
In David Wynn v. Southern Fidelity Insurance Co, No. 2:22-CV-04641, United States District Court, W.D. Louisiana, Lake Charles Division (May 24, 2024) alleged damage to plaintiff’s home in Sulphur, Louisiana, during Hurricanes Laura and Delta. Plaintiff, who was then represented by counsel from the law firm of McClenny Moseley & Associates, filed suit in this court against Southern Fidelity Insurance Company on August 25, 2022, raising claims of breach of insurance contract and bad faith.
Read the full July 15, 2024 issue of ZIFL http://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ZIFL-07-15-2024.pdf
Trucking Firm Owner’s Scheme to Lower Insurance Costs Guilty on Seven Counts
Tony Kirik, the owner of a New York trucking business who fabricated a supposedly independent Texas affiliate to circumvent his existing firm’s negative safety rating higher insurance costs was found guilty of conspiracy and fraud. On June 21, 2024 a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, following a three-week jury trial, found Kirik guilty on seven counts that include conspiracy, false documents, false statements, falsification of records, and concealment of material facts.
Read the full July 15, 2024 issue of ZIFL http://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ZIFL-07-15-2024.pdf
More Prosecution is Needed to Deter Insurance Fraud
Thomas Orville McLaughlin II was convicted of committing a fraudulent insurance act, making a false information, and interfering with law enforcement. He appealed claiming several of the State’s exhibits were improperly admitted and that a defense witness was improperly excluded.
In State of Kansas v. Thomas Orville McLaughlin II, No. 124,221, Court of Appeals of Kansas (June 21, 2024) McLaughlin sought relief from his conviction for insurance fraud.
Read the full July 15, 2024 issue of ZIFL http://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ZIFL-07-15-2024.pdf
Health Insurance Fraud Convictions
Pacific Toxicology Laboratories Agrees to Pay $1 Million to Resolve Allegations of Fraudulent Billing
Pacific Toxicology Laboratories (PacTox), has agreed to pay $1 million to resolve allegations that it submitted false claims for payment to Medicare for urine drug testing (UDT).
Read the full July 15, 2024 issue of ZIFL http://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ZIFL-07-15-2024.pdf and dozens more reports of convictions.
Convictions of Other Than Health Insurance Fraud
Iowa Woman Sentenced for Pet Insurance Fraud
Read the full July 15, 2024 issue of ZIFL http://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ZIFL-07-15-2024.pdf
Sarah Rahm, age 39, of Bondurant, Iowa made willful misrepresentations regarding her pet’s medical history and then falsified the onset date of a claimed medical condition in connection with an insurance claim, according to an investigation by the Iowa Insurance Division’s Fraud Bureau.
Read the full July 15, 2024 issue of ZIFL here.
UK Convicts Motorcycle Fraud Claims
Matthew Shaw lost his claim in the UK in a case called Shaw v Wilde, Case No: F90NlA2-1 a case that arose from a motorcycle accident that left Mr. Shaw with injuries to all four limbs. After receiving an interim payment of £150,000 from Hastings Direct, Mr Shaw pursued a £6.6 million claim, citing expenses for luxury vehicles and business class travel.
Hastings Direct and Keoghs achieved what is said to be the largest fundamental dishonesty verdict ever recorded in the UK, with £6.6 million saved by the insurance provider.
Read the full July 15, 2024 issue of ZIFL http://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ZIFL-07-15-2024.pdf.
Barry Zalma, Inc., 4441 Sepulveda Boulevard, CULVER CITY CA 90230-4847, 310-390-4455; Subscribe to Zalma on Insurance at locals.com https://zalmaoninsurance.local.com/subscribe. Subscribe to Excellence in Claims Handling at https://barryzalma.substack.com/welcome. Go to the podcast Zalma On Insurance at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/barry-zalma/support Write to Mr. Zalma at [email protected]; http://www.zalma.com; http://zalma.com/blog.
He publishes daily articles at https://zalma.substack.com, Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://zalma.com/blog/insurance-claims-library/ to consider more than 50 volumes written by Barry Zalma on insurance and insurance claims handling.
Go to Zalma’s Insurance Fraud Letter at https://zalma.com/zalmas-insurance-fraud-letter-2/ ; Go to X @bzalma; Go to Barry Zalma videos at Rumble.com at https://rumble.com/c/c-262921; Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://zalma.com/blog/insurance-claims-library/ and GTTR at https://gettr.com/@zalma
ZIFL-07-15-2024.pdf
Read the full July 15, 2024 issue of ZIFL at https://lnkd.in/gj6gmEHf
Barry Zalma, Inc., 310-390-4455;
The Largest Residential Burglary of All Time
Post 5407
Fraud & the Fear of Bad Faith Suits
Posted on July 22, 2026 by Barry Zalma
See the full video at https://lnkd.in/gWQQEySW and at https://lnkd.in/gyhdK6wv
This is a Fictionalized True Crime Story of Insurance Fraud explaining why Insurance Fraud is a “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” situation for Insurers. The story is one of a collection designed to help to Understand How Insurance Fraud in America is Costing Everyone who Buys Insurance Thousands of Dollars Every year and Why Insurance Fraud is Safer and More Profitable for the Perpetrators than any Other Crime.
This is a Fictionalized True Crime Story of Insurance Fraud explaining why Insurance Fraud is a “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” situation for Insurers. The story is one of a collection designed to help to Understand How Insurance Fraud in America is Costing Everyone who Buys Insurance Thousands of Dollars Every year and Why Insurance Fraud is Safer and More Profitable for the Perpetrators than any Other Crime.
After ...
Chutzpah is not Enough
Post 5397
Posted on July 20, 2026 by Barry Zalma
See the video and at https://lnkd.in/gNUs2XzT and at https://lnkd.in/g2MawyzX
Magistrate Issues a Search Warrant if there is a Fair Probability that Contraband or Evidence of a Crime will be Found in a Particular Place.
In United States Of America v. Frank Suess, et al., CRIMINAL No. 3:24-308, United States District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania (July 16, 2026) a federal grand jury indicted Frank Suess, Melissa Driscoll, and others in a 55-count health care fraud and anti-kickback prosecution arising from an alleged scheme involving medically unnecessary prescription “foot baths.”
As part of the investigation, the FBI obtained an August 19, 2022 warrant to search Driscoll’s Sterling Pharmacy Yahoo email account for emails from January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2020. Driscoll moved to suppress the resulting evidence, arguing that the warrant lacked probable cause, was overbroad, and rested on material misstatements and omissions.
LAW:
The ...
Fraud Shouldn’t Pay
Post 5396
See the video and at https://rumble.com/v7ctgmq-the-great-jewel-theft.html at https://youtu.be/aRbQ2sJfGwA
This is a Fictionalized True Crime Story of Insurance Fraud explaining why Insurance Fraud is a “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” situation for Insurers. The story is one of a collection designed to help to Understand How Insurance Fraud in America is Costing Everyone who Buys Insurance Thousands of Dollars Every year and Why Insurance Fraud is Safer and More Profitable for the ¬¬¬Perpetrators than any Other Crime.
The Insured purchased, for the first time in his life, a policy of Personal Articles Floater Insurance (PAF) scheduling $125,000 worth of ladies jewelry. He advised the insurer that the jewelry was always kept in a class E safe at his residence. He also told the insurer that he was employed full time as the owner of a gasoline service station and that he had never been canceled or suffered a previous loss.
One month after the policy was ...
Day Care Owner Loses Subsidies Because She Criticized State
Post 5421
Posted on August 11, 2026 by Barry Zalma
First Amendment Right Will be Allowed to Go to Trial
In Betsey J. Grant v. Maine State Department Of Heath And Human Services, No. 1:25-cv-00490-JAW, United States District Court, D. Maine (August 6, 2026), Betsey J. Grant, a licensed childcare provider and operator of Tiny Tikes Daycare in Trenton, Maine, sued Maine DHHS and several employees after she publicly criticized DHHS before Maine’s Government Oversight Committee and alleged that officials retaliated against her.
She claimed DHHS imposed and extended a conditional license, published stigmatizing information, interfered with subsidies and program funding, removed her from a food program, rescinded an expansion grant, and used biased or falsified evidence in licensing proceedings. Following the March 10, 2023, GOC testimony, Ms. Grant alleges that foster children's subsidies (approximately $30,000) were withheld; she was removed from the ...
Rescission for Material Misrepresentation
Post 5418
Posted on August 5, 2026 by Barry Zalma
An Insurer May Rescind An Insurance Policy Where The Applicant Made A Material Misrepresentation In The Application.
In Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company v. 844 Knickerbocker, LLC, et al. No. 2024-10359, Index No. 602824/22, 2026 NY Slip Op 04789, Supreme Court of New York, Second Department (July 29, 2026) Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company issued commercial insurance policies to 844 Knickerbocker, LLC, and Sanjaya Mallick based on applications stating that the insured property contained two apartment units. After an underlying personal injury action was filed, Union Mutual determined that the property actually contained three apartment units and rescinded the policies on the ground that the defendants had made a material misrepresentation in the applications.
LAW:
A misrepresentation is material if the insurer would not have issued the same policy, or would have issued it only on different terms, had the true ...
Rescission for Material Misrepresentation
Post 5418
Posted on August 5, 2026 by Barry Zalma
An Insurer May Rescind An Insurance Policy Where The Applicant Made A Material Misrepresentation In The Application.
In Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company v. 844 Knickerbocker, LLC, et al. No. 2024-10359, Index No. 602824/22, 2026 NY Slip Op 04789, Supreme Court of New York, Second Department (July 29, 2026) Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company issued commercial insurance policies to 844 Knickerbocker, LLC, and Sanjaya Mallick based on applications stating that the insured property contained two apartment units.
LAW:
A misrepresentation is material if the insurer would not have issued the same policy, or would have issued it only on different terms, had the true facts been disclosed. To establish materiality as a matter of law, the insurer must submit documentation of its underwriting practices, such as manuals, guidelines, bulletins, or rules addressing similar risks.
DISCUSSION/ANALYSIS:
As a result, the...
