Saturday, February 25, 2012

Insurance Fraud--The Hard Way!

[Photo of hand from wikipedia]
As a former federal prosecutor, I handled a large number of white collar crime cases involving insurance fraud.  In my twenty year career as an AUSA, I thought that I saw it all!  But I was wrong!

Did you read about the South Carolina man who was charged in federal court this week with essentially conspiring with two other men to intentionally cut off the hand of one of the other two men (with a pole saw) and then file for insurance!?  According to news reports, the three men then submitted insurance claims on a homeowner's insurance policy (and "accidental" death and dismemberment policies) and fraudulently obtained a whopping $671,000! 

Of course, as an Augusta, Georgia criminal defense lawyer, I must emphasize that the indictment is only a charge which must be proven by the government and that the defendant is entitled to his day in court.

But, as to the alleged incident, it makes one wonder how the parties would determine who would be on which end of the pole saw!  Which end would you select?  And it also raises the question of whether any of us would be willing to "lose" a hand for this (or any) amount of money!

What do you think?

3 comments:

  1. As a former insurance fraud investigator for a large company here in Nebraska, I've seen many weird ploys to obtain insurance proceeds by wrongful acts. This one is rather extreme, but I suppose it depends on how desperate someone is for money. Interesting post. :) Thanks for sharing at Your Sunday Best.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nancy,
    Thank you for stopping by! I'll bet you saw a lot of white collar crime as an investigator! I hope everyone checks out your fine blog, too!
    Richard

    ReplyDelete
  3. How awful! Oh my goodness.
    Hoping you have a nice weekend my friend xo

    ReplyDelete