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Worst Insurance Fraud Artists of the 21st Century – and What Got Them Caught
21st Century Wire says…
LIFE IMITATES ART: Benecio Del Toro dressed up as an Ashkenazi Jew in the opening scene of Guy Ritchie’s 2000 film, Snatch.
Insurance fraud, or as it’s endearingly called in cockney English, as “an insurance job”, is one of the most pervasive scams out there – carried out by both the mafia and (previously) legitimate business owners alike, as well as the rich and poor, young and old, church and state, and even by insurance industry insiders themselves.
The insurance business arrived on colonial US shores in 1752, courtesy of Benjamin Franklin who helped front the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire, the first mutual fire insurance company in America. Franklin also helped to start first life insurance company in America, the Presbyterian Ministers’ Fund.
With the explosion of insurance products in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, another explosion was also taking place – insurance scams and fraud. According to top lawyers, insurance from AIG pulled off the biggest-ever extortion racket scam when they managing to extract $25 billion in cash from the US government in bailouts following the 2008 sub-prime market crash.
The fraud and scams are nothing new, as Investopedia explains:
With the explosion in insurance products and the companies issuing them, the young industry was fraught with fraud and scandal. These ranged from issuing companies that did not actually have the capital to pay claims, running instead like fragile ‘Ponzi’ schemes, to insurers demanding unfairly high premiums or forcing out competitors in an attempt to create a monopoly. Many state laws were passed to try and curb the problems, but by the early 1900s things were still unsettled. (For related reading, see What Is A Pyramid Scheme?)
Here are some of the more recent, yet craziest US insurance fraud cases of the 21st Century – and what got them caught:
Infographic source: Eamonn Freeman from Easy Life Cover, based in the Republic of Ireland.
READ MORE FINANCIAL NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Financial Files
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Source: http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/10/29/worst-insurance-fraud-artists-of-the-21st-century-and-what-got-them-caught/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=worst-insurance-fraud-artists-of-the-21st-century-and-what-got-them-caught
Like my grand parents used to say….the only good insurance person, is one who bites the big one. Best action taken against a greedy insurance companies, arrogant agent, was when grand dad, after a lot of years paying premiums, on the ranch, needed to file a claim on one of his sheds that caught fire, because of lightening. Because only about a 1/32th of the building was standing and had new lumber, from being repaired, the company said that they couldn’t insure it, because it was a newer building, not on the policy. Well, grandpa always repaired his buildings, typical maintenance, to keep hay, grain…etc. dry. So that accounted for the new lumber.
Grand dad, picked that insurance agent up by the front of the shirt, threw him over a fence, into one of those mud holes, that the pigs used for wallowing in and cooling off. I mean stink, green/brownish scum, flies and other things floating around. Every time that agent tried to get back over the fence, well someone in the family threw him back in.
We kids, painted his car with red and white barn paint, brand new 1946 Plymouth, all black and shiny. Pretty funny day. As for the cops, sure helped to have your great uncle as the sheriff of the county and your uncles as deputies. Oh yeah….so and so Bureau insurance paid up and then some. That is the only real satisfaction I have seen in my life against an insurance company and to this day….man oh man, do I hate them.
Best laugh in ages! Thanks