Latest Fraud Headlines

All the headlines from our Fraud Topic Page, ordered by recency.

South Carolina Man Admits to Sawing Off Man’s Hand for Insurance Money

Aug 23 2012 // A South Carolina man pleaded guilty this week to a federal fraud charge, acknowledging his role in an insurance scheme that cost a mentally disabled man his left hand.Gerald B. Hardin of Cayce told U.S. District Judge...

Mississippi Woman Alleged to Be Habitual ‘Slip and Fall’ Claimant

Aug 21 2012 // A Southaven, Mississippi woman has been arrested for fraud and charged as a habitual offender. Authorities accuse her of faking a fall at the Ramada Inn in Horn Lake to collect insurance money. The Mississippi attorney...

Iowa Brokerage Founder Pleads Not Guilty to Fraud

Aug 20 2012 // The founder of an Iowa-based brokerage pleaded not guilty on Aug. 17 to fraud charges in a suspected $200 million embezzlement scheme that drove his firm to bankruptcy and left thousands of customers without their...

Mississippi Man Charged with Oil Spill Claims Fraud

Aug 20 2012 // A Columbia, Mississippi man is under federal indictment for allegedly filing $10,000 worth of false claims for Deepwater Horizon oil spill relief funding.The Clarion-Ledger reported that Jermaine Ball has been charged with...

Rhode Island Sees Rash of Scrap Metal Thefts

Aug 16 2012 // First thieves swiped manhole covers from a new subdivision. Then officials discovered that bronze plaques honoring work done during the Great Depression had been pried from sidewalks at Providence’s largest park....

Thieves Stealing 3rd Row Seats From Dallas SUVs

Aug 16 2012 // Police in a wealthy Texas enclave are reporting a rash of SUV break-ins in which thieves are stealing third-row seats.University Park police urge SUV owners to park in their garages and lock the seats down with cables....

N.Y. Businessman Charged With $10M Insurance Fraud Scheme

Aug 14 2012 // A businessman who owned fleets of commercial vehicles in New York is accused of defrauding insurers of at least $10 million. The defendant, Scott Sanders, is charged with submitting fraudulent insurance applications to get...

Former Conn. Doc Sentenced for Illegal Prescriptions, Insurance Fraud

Aug 10 2012 // A former Plainville, Conn., doctor has been sentenced to four months in prison for dealing prescription drugs. Prosecutors say Richard Luzietti was charged after an investigation into about 100 prescriptions that he wrote...

Son of N.Y. Man Who Vanished at Beach Is Charged With Insurance Fraud

Aug 8 2012 // A man who reported his father missing at a New York beach was charged Monday with insurance fraud and filing a false report several days after his father turned up alive in South Carolina, following a massive air and water...

Montana Agent Pleads Guilty to Stealing Premiums

Aug 6 2012 // An insurance agent from Butte, Mont., who pleaded guilty to stealing more than $7,200 of his client’s premiums has been given a three-year deferred sentence and ordered to pay restitution. State Insurance...

Copper Theft on Rise in Alabama

Aug 6 2012 // Copper thefts are becoming a growing problem for Alabama farmers. Southeast Alabama farmer Trey Martin said someone stole the copper wiring from his irrigation system. The copper wire was worth $50, but the damages to the...

A Decade Later: Is Sarbanes-Oxley Working?

Aug 6 2012 // When Peregrine Financial collapsed in July, a nagging question resurfaced. As in the implosion of Lehman Brothers, the fall of Bernard Madoff and other cases in recent years, many asked: Where were the accountants?That...

R.I. Woman Gets 10-Year Prison Sentence for Insurance Fraud

Aug 3 2012 // Prosecutors say a Warwick, R.I., woman has been sentenced to 10 years and a day in federal prison for setting her house on fire to commit mail fraud. The Providence Journal reports that U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha says...

Florida Tops the List of States With Most Watercraft Thefts: NICB

Aug 3 2012 // The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) published this week its latest report on watercraft theft and recoveries in the United States. According to the report, Florida led the nation with the highest number of thefts in...

North Carolina Agent Arrested, Charged With Insurance Fraud

Aug 2 2012 // North Carolina regulators announced this week that a local insurance agent was arrested and charged with one felony count of obtaining property by false pretense. Department of Insurance criminal investigators allege that...

New, Tougher Insurance Fraud Law Now in Effect in Alabama

Aug 2 2012 // A number of recently enacted laws in Alabama concerning property-casualty insurance became effective on August 1.• One newly enacted law, Act 12-429 (Insurance Fraud), makes insurance fraud a felony crime. It will be...

N.J. Chiropractor Charged With Stealing $89K Through False Claims

Aug 1 2012 // New Jersey officials announced that a local chiropractor was charged with stealing more than $89,000 from insurance companies by submitting false claims for alleged treatments on more than 30 patients who were involved in...

Cincinatti Insurance Co., IDentity Theft 911 to Offer Data Breach Services to Insureds

Aug 1 2012 // IDentity Theft 911, an identity management and data risk management service company, is partnering with The Cincinnati Insurance Company to bring data risk solutions to Cincinnati’s commercial insurance...

Florida’s Workers’ Compensation Check Fraud Efforts Produce Results

Aug 1 2012 // Just months after Florida lawmakers enacted a new law designed to target the role of check cashing companies in the construction industry, state officials announced a string of arrests netting more than $140 million in...

2 Calif. Men Arrested In Insurance Fraud Scam

Jul 30 2012 // Authorities say two California men were arrested this week on suspicion of running an insurance fraud scam that bilked multiple companies for hundreds of thousands of dollars.Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said Friday...