A massive scheme organized by New York City-based Russian fraudsters, MS-13 gang members, corrupt surgeons, and greedy lawyers has cost local businesses and insurance companies “billions,” a report revealed Sunday.
Low-income New Yorkers — especially recent migrants — are being taken advantage of by sketchy lending and law firms in order to get large insurance payouts by staging accidents and getting unnecessary surgeries, the New York Post reported.
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Leaders from the Hispanic gang MS-13 have been funneling migrants into the city, some for the specific purpose of faking injuries at construction sites or on the street, sources told the paper.
Insiders claimed that the gang “ropes in unsuspecting border crossers with offers to drive them to the city, pay for meals and provide spending cash before pressuring them into phony accidents.”
“They’re regularly recruiting migrants and homeless people and in some cases are proactively arranging for them to come to New York,” a private investigator told the outlet.
After being pressured into tripping on a sidewalk or taking a tumble off a ladder at a worksite, these migrants are loaned money to retain attorneys and undergo extensive medical treatment in order to get a huge payout from the construction company’s or property owner’s insurance.
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A private investigator said that setting up planned falls and injuries is “so successful for MS-13” that “rival gangs are now trying it.”
What MS-13 doesn’t have access to, however, is the white-collar side of the scam. That’s why they’ve reportedly been collaborating with Russian-owned doctors’ offices, lawyers, and lenders who work to secure the insurance money.
Law enforcement expert Lou Savelli, founder of the NYPD’s gang unit, said that the agency uncovered one Russian operation where doctors, personal injury lawyers, loan sharks, and physical therapists all operated in the same office building.
“It was one-stop shopping. Everyone was in the same place,” Savelli said, adding that authorities were unable to prosecute the group.
The Russian-MS-13 partnership “is a perfect marriage,” a second ex-NYPD cop told the Post.
The lawyers and doctors involved in this scam are doing it to take a large cut from the winnings, as settlements usually start at around $1 million or higher.
“One-five is now on the cheap side,” an insurance lawyer told the outlet.
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Poughkeepsie insurance firm Tradesman Program Managers, which covers several contractors and construction companies in the city, said it forked over a whopping $142 million in 2022 — triple the amount it paid out in 2018. In the last four years, Tradesman claims it has been victimized by 650 fraudulent suits.
“We’re talking billions collectively across the city,” said an anonymous insurance executive.
Tradesman and its underwriter filed a lawsuit against a slew of doctors and law firms for their alleged roles in the fraud.
“They train the migrants how to act at some of these staged accidents,” Tradesman lawyer Kirk Willis told ABC7 in March. “And then when the people are hurt — allegedly hurt — they go to the lawyer first, not the doctor, and the lawyer then starts a course that sets up these fraudulent lawsuits.”
Industry sources have estimated that the fraudulent insurance claims have tripled since the pandemic, and it’s impacting the rising cost-of-living crisis throughout NYC.
“Every contractor is affected because their rates go up every year and they pass along the costs,” said restoration company owner Steven Katz. “It affects every single building. It’s an undisclosed tax.”
Manhattan surgeon Dr. Sady Ribeiro was sentenced to three years in prison last March for performing back operations as part of an insurance scam.
“Sady Ribeiro abused his professional license and broke his vow to do no harm by performing scores of medically unnecessary, invasive surgeries to increase the value of fraudulent trip-and-fall lawsuits,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said. “In carrying out the scheme, Ribeiro and his co-conspirators preyed upon the most vulnerable members of society – many of whom were poor, drug addicts, or homeless – in order to enrich themselves.”
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A former chiropractor who blew the whistle in the Ribeiro case, Peter Kalkanis, testified against his former associate in court.
“It was always a back injury,” Kalkanis, who pocketed $2 million for orchestrating more than 200 accidents over four years, said.
The downside for the person who takes the fake tumble is they’re having to undergo major surgeries — often getting their healthy vertebrae fused and screwed together to come after insurance companies for hefty back operation costs.
If someone balked at having a fusion, “the case would be dropped” by the scheming doctors and lawyers, Kalkanis claimed.
Unfortunately, there are many very desperate individuals who take their chances at permanently disabling themselves to get just a small cut of the winnings.
“Those who pose as injured receive as little as $1,000 each,” the Post reported, citing court testimony from one case.
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