Top insurance fraud swindlers
Class of 2005
Juan Ortiz was tired of maintaining his rickety old Palomar Hotel in Hollywood. Looking for a $1-million insurance payday, he had his brother Arturo light gasoline inside the building. One resident, Norma Galindo handed her two children to firefighters before flames closed in and she fell to her death. Two firefighters also were seriously burned when flaming debris fell on them inside the hotel, along with Juan’s brother Arturo perished as well. Ortiz served nearly five years for insurance fraud, but wasn’t convicted for the deaths or fires.
William Paul Crouse and Carmello Zanfei sold fake health insurance to tens of thousands of victims around the US through their sham firm, TRG Marketing. Florida roofer Rusty Baker committed suicide after growing depressed when Indiana-based TRG wouldn’t pay his medical bills. Champion NASCAR driver Pete Orr died of cancer after delays in finding new coverage.
Antoinette Millard known to many as Princess Antoinette and a member of the Saudi royal family imposed as a royal Princess in order to gain acceptance in the high society life. She lived her life as royalty from her appearance, attended high society events, wear designer clothes and expensive jewelry to was charged to her no-limit American Express Centurion card. Antoinette was actually an investment banker in Manhattan and decided to quit her job to start living out this bogus scam. Millard was arrested at her apartment in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. At trial, she gamely tried to explain away her bogus insurance claim, fake identity and rash spending: She was manic depressive, and traumatized by child abuse, sexual harassment at work and watching people jump from the World Trade Center on September 11, she insisted. She pleaded guilty to insurance fraud and attempted grand larceny in August. She could’ve spent up to 15 years in prison. But instead she agreed to spend a year confined in a psychiatric facility, where she’ll receive intense treatment.
Brian Calen made a small fortune in insurance money by lying that he lost his right eye on three separate boat cruises. The Manhattan day trader claimed the sun filter fell off a ship’s telescope while he was looking through it, a champagne bottle exploded on another cruise, and he was hit by a flying toy disc on a third cruise.
Molly and Clayton Daniels dug up the grave of an elderly woman, dressed her in Clayton’s clothing, stuffed her body in the car and pushed it off the cliff. The Leander, Tex. couple wanted to collect $110,000 in life-insurance money, hoping the insurer would believe the blackened body in the car was her husband Clayton. Supportive co-workers collected $1,000 to help Molly with the funeral, and neighbors agreed to help care for her two children aged four and one. Molly couldn’t collect her $110,000 in life-insurance money, however, until routine DNA tests confirmed the body as Clayton’s. Investigators had a suspension that this may be an insurance scam when Clayton resurfaced as Molly’s son Caleb. Investigators also found fake birth certificates, high school transcripts, credit reports, and a Texas driver’s license for Jake Gregg. Clayton also had other reasons to disappear. He’d sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl some years back. His 10-year sentence was deferred, but he never reported to his probation officer and earned himself a trip back to the slammer. And Molly, apparently, was getting panicky that her family would fall apart. Molly was sentenced to a 20-year sentence for insurance fraud, and 10 years for hindering Clayton’s arrest. Clayton awaits trial on arson charges.
Alireza Asgari subjected dozens of healthy patients to unnecessary painful treatments some in which caused infections at his Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Dental clinic. Asgari’s motive: A $366,000 jackpot in fraudulent billings from insurance companies, prosecutors allege. Asgari was the handpicked successor to a respected local dentist who was retiring. Despite the thicket of diplomas he displayed, it’s unclear whether he even graduated from dental school, according to news reports. Asgari abruptly closed his office and skipped to California as patient complaints mounted. That left patients scrambling to find a new dentist and retrieve their dental records stashed in a storage unit. But whatever happens at his lengthy criminal trial, Asgari faces more than 150 malpractice suits from angry patients.
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