Latest Fraud Headlines
All the headlines from our Fraud Topic Page, ordered by recency.
South Carolina Shifts Insurance Fraud Investigations to Insurance Department
Jul 12 2021 // South Carolina is transferring its insurance fraud investigations from the attorney general to the insurance regulator. Ray Farmer, director of the South Carolina Department of Insurance (SCDOI), said he has entered into...
Suspended Georgia Insurance Commissioner To Go On Trial In Theft Case
Jul 12 2021 // Georgia Insurance Commissioner Jim Beck will go trial this week on charges that he swindled his former employer out of $2 million to pay personal bills and pump money into his 2018 campaign. The Atlanta...
Massachusetts Man Sentenced to Prison for Workers’ Compensation Fraud Scheme
Jul 9 2021 // A Massachusetts man has been sentenced to prison for a fraud scheme to evade payroll taxes and workers’ compensation requirements in the construction industry. U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard has sentenced...
Does It Ever Make Sense for Firms to Pay Ransomware Criminals?
Jul 8 2021 // The global insurance company AXA announced in May it will stop writing cyber insurance coverage in France that reimburses customers for making payments to ransomware criminals. Cyber insurance policies have long covered...
California Drivers Charged After Text Messages Detail Alleged Fraud Scheme
Jul 8 2021 // Maricela Pantjoa Vidrio, 31, of Fairfield, Calif., and Areshma Kiran, 35, of Sacramento, Calif., were charged on multiple felony counts of insurance fraud after allegedly conspiring to misrepresent the facts following an...
Cyber Insurance Industry in Crosshairs of Ransomware Criminals
Jul 7 2021 // In the past few weeks, ransomware criminals claimed as trophies at least three North American insurance brokerages that offer policies to help others survive the very network-paralyzing, data-pilfering extortion attacks...
Like ‘Terminator,’ High-Tech Cyber Crime to ‘Keep Coming’
Jul 5 2021 // Businesses worldwide are fighting sophisticated data scientists as they battle to protect their data-rich computers from cyber crime – and the costly attacks are not going to stop, an expert at insurer Sompo Holdings...
The Cybercrime Challenge for Agents
Jul 5 2021 // Ransomware is all over the news of late — Colonial Pipeline, CNA and JBS plus hospitals, municipalities and many other businesses. If only reading the headlines, you might conclude that ransomware affects primarily...
Insurers’ Own Infrastructure Could Be Next Targets of Cyber Criminals
Jul 2 2021 // As “the next digital pandemic,” cyber risks are increasingly becoming a problem for insurers themselves, according to an industry expert. With “a lack of controls at [an] insurer, [you] could have...
New Hampshire Insurance Department Investigates 18 Insurance Fraud Cases
Jul 2 2021 // The New Hampshire Insurance Department has announced that it investigated and submitted for criminal prosecution a total of 18 insurance fraud cases over the past twelve months. The cases varied in nature, but included...
California Advances Decriminalizing Psychedelic Substances
Jul 1 2021 // California this week moved another step closer to decriminalizing psychedelics – amid a debate over whether their prohibition is an outdated remnant of the War on Drugs – after the author removed a substance from the...
Indictment Says Tech Firm Official Stole Money, Ran Fraud Scheme
Jun 25 2021 // The chief operating officer of a Philadelphia-based technology startup company orchestrated a long-running securities offering fraud while simultaneously embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the firm, according...
Massachusetts Repair Shop Owner Pleads Guilty to Insurance Fraud Charges
Jun 25 2021 // A man who used sledgehammers and mallets to further damage customers’ vehicles at the two auto body shops he owned in an effort to cheat insurance companies has pleaded guilty to dozens of charges, prosecutors...
Massachusetts Man Charged with Identity Theft in Attempt to Buy Luxury Car
Jun 24 2021 // A Massachusetts man is suspected of stealing the identities of two people in an attempt to buy an $83,000 car, federal prosecutors said. Brandon Brouillard, 27, of Worcester, was indicted last week on bank fraud and...
European Commission to Form Cyber Unit to Fight Growing Online Crime
Jun 23 2021 // The European Commission proposed on Wednesday to pool resources and expertise from the EU’s 27 countries for a joint cyber unit to fight online criminals amid a spate of high-profile hacks in Europe and...
Like ‘Terminator,’ High-Tech Cyber Crime to ‘Keep Coming’
Jun 23 2021 // Businesses worldwide are fighting sophisticated data scientists as they battle to protect their data-rich computers from cyber crime —and the costly attacks are not going to stop, a top expert at insurer Sompo Holdings...
Suit Filed Against 11 N.Y. Skilled Nursing Facilities for Fraud, Unnecessary Services
Jun 18 2021 // A civil healthcare fraud lawsuit against 11 New York-based skilled nursing facilities alleges that they fraudulently inflated Medicare reimbursements by prolonging patient stays without regard to patients’ medical...
Alabama Woman Acquitted of Theft Sues Former Boss Over False Claim for $4M
Jun 16 2021 // An Alabama woman who was cleared of theft charges after a former employer accused her of stealing from his wedding venue business is now suing her one-time boss for $4 million. Gayla White, a former member of the city...
Mass. Construction Company Owner Charged with Payroll, Workers’ Comp Fraud
Jun 15 2021 // The owner of a Revere, Massachusetts, construction company was sentenced on June 10, 2021, on charges of engaging in an under-the-table payroll fraud scheme that defrauded the government of more than $500,000 and insurance...
Insurance Agency Owner’s Suicide Unrelated to Fraud Allegations, Says Firm
Jun 14 2021 // The co-founder of a Florida financial firm facing investor lawsuits alleging securities fraud has died by suicide, and a spokesperson on Monday denied wrongdoing, saying the death was not connected to a class action...
