Top insurance fraud swindlers
Class of 2002
Curtis Donald Keene, a Georgia farmer somehow buried his eight-ton cotton picker — as big as two trash trucks — then pretended it was stolen so he could scam insurance money. He was desperate for money after financial setbacks.
Belinda Lovander, one of NYPD’s own employees helped run a huge auto-insurance swindle from, of all places, inside the department itself. She pleaded guilty in January 2002 to filing 22 fake accident reports and was sentenced to 2 to 6 years in prison. Prosecutors said Lovander was a ringleader in a scam in which 110 people were arrested in December 2001.
Rex DeGeorge, wealthy Beverly Hills lawyer tried to sink his yacht insisted when caught after botching a scheme to scuttle his luxury boat for $3.5 million in insurance money. It was a lie that landed DeGeorge in prison.
Jaelynn Sealey he torched car plus a racial slur painted on Jaelynn Sealey’s garage door seemed like a vicious hate crime. But she invented the racial attack herself to steal insurance money.
Richard Martinez’ illegal meth lab blew up and seriously burned him. He scammed $40,000 in workers compensation insurance by saying he was hurt while working at his mother’s bakery.
Raul Pero grave contained only rocks. He faked his own death for $2 million in life insurance money, but screwed up when a crony tried to cash in a life policy before the date on Pero’s death certificate.
Martin Frankel rogue financier and S&M playboy secretly took over seven small insurance companies and stole more than $200 million from them while thousands of policyholders lost their coverage.
Dr. Andrew Cubria performed more than 750 worthless and painful heart operations on homeless people and addicts to illegally bill taxpayer-supported Medicaid more than $2 million.
Dr. Felix Vasquez-Ruiz performed thousands of worthless nerve tests involving painful electric shocks, and then billed taxpayer-supported health programs $4 million for the phony treatments.
Steven Budge, insurance adjuster rammed a huge chunk of tree through a small hole in a roof to inflate an insurance claim — only to have a nosy neighbor videotape everything.
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