ZIFL Volume 29, Issue 6
The Source for the Insurance Fraud Professional
Post 5019
Read the full article at https://zalma.com/blog plus more than 5000 posts.
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Zalma’s Insurance Fraud Letter (ZIFL) continues its 29th 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/ You can read the full issue of the March 15, 2025 issue at https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ZIFL-03-15-2025.pdf
This issue contains the following articles about insurance fraud:
Mold Fraud Case Defeated
I received the following in an email from Jennifer Herrick who used my Mold Books to help defeat what they believed were fraudulent mold claims. I felt it worth while to pass it on. I simply copied her e-mail.
Read the full article and the full 22 pages of the issue ZIFL at https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ZIFL-03-15-2025.pdf
American Insurers Need to Adopt and Implement Excellence in Claims Handling
Attempts to Obtain a Quarterly Profit Insurers Lose Multi-Year Profits
Insurers have, over the last three decades, decimated their professional claims staffs. Experienced claims adjusters were fired and replaced with young, untrained, unprepared people. A virtual clerk replaced the old professional claims handler. Software programs took over from the seasoned interviewer to analyze the right to claims proceeds. Hands-on human skill, empathy and judgment were removed from insurers contact with those to whom they promised to provide indemnity fairly, promptly and in good faith. Money was saved from the insurer’s expense column by paying lower salaries. Within three months of firing the experienced claims people gross profit increased for a quarter of a year or two quarters.
Read the full article and the full 22 pages of the issue ZIFL at https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ZIFL-03-15-2025.pdf
Heath Insurance Fraud Convictions
Arkansas Reports 6 Medicaid Fraud Convictions and 1 Civil Settlement
On March 11, 2025, Trey Franks, 28, of Jacksonville pleaded guilty to Abuse of an Endangered or Impaired Person (Exploitation), a Class ‘C’ Felony, and was sentenced to a five-year term of probation, and ordered to pay a $250 fine, court costs, and restitution in the amount of $867.89. Franks used an impaired person’s debit card to pay his credit card bills.
Read the full article, reports of dozens of convictions, and the full 22 pages of the issue ZIFL at https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ZIFL-03-15-2025.pdf
MORE MCCLENNY MOSELEY & ASSOCIATES ISSUES
This is ZIFL’s forty-third 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.
March 25, 2025 – $3 Million MMA Investor Sued with Allegations of Fraudulent Estimates
Read the full article and the full 22 pages of the issue ZIFL at https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ZIFL-03-15-2025.pdf
The Compact Book of Adjusting Liability Claims Fourth Edition
A Handbook for the Liability Claims Adjuster
The insurance adjuster is seldom, if ever, mentioned in an insurance policy. The strict wording of third party liability policies set the obligation to prove a claim that entitles the insured to defense or indemnity of a claim against the insured by an injured third party.
Read the full article and the full 22 pages of the issue ZIFL at https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ZIFL-03-15-2025.pdf
CONVICTIONS OF OTHER THAN HEALTH INSURANCE FRAUD
40 Fraudulent Insurance Policies Worth $20 Million
Maureen Wilson, of Owings Mills, Maryland was convicted by a federal jury for conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, and related charges for wire fraud, money laundering and filing false tax returns.
According to court documents, Wilson conspired with her husband James Wilson to defraud insurance companies by obtaining over 40 life insurance policies for applicants by misrepresenting their health, wealth and existing life insurance coverage. The total death benefits from these policies exceeded $20 million.
Read the full article and the full 22 pages of the issue ZIFL at https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ZIFL-03-15-2025.pdf
Deterring Insurance Fraud
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.
A New Book on Insurance Fraud and How the DOJ Deters and Defeats Insurance Fraud.
The book is now available as a Kindle book, a paperback and hardcover
Read the full article and the full 22 pages of the issue ZIFL at https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ZIFL-03-15-2025.pdf
BARRY ZALMA
Barry Zalma, Inc., 4441 Sepulveda Boulevard, CULVER CITY CA 90230-4847, 310-390-4455. Subscribe to Excellence in Claims Handling at https://barryzalma.substack.com/welcome. Write to Mr. Zalma at [email protected]; https://www.zalma.com; https://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.
Read the full article and the full 22 pages of the issue ZIFL at https://zalma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ZIFL-03-15-2025.pdf
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...
