Insurance InvestigatorTip Helps Police Catch Major Fraud Ring

Asian-Americans in Flushing were targeted by an insurance fraud ring that staged fake car accidents and filed phony medical claims under the state's no-fault insurance law, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said yesterday in announcing the indictments of 61 people across the city.

The 19-month investigation by at least 100 city police officers and FBI agents came after police received a tip from an insurance investigator in March 2007 that there was a pattern of accidents along Northern and Parsons boulevards dating back to 2005, the district attorney said at a news conference in Kew Gardens.

In "Operation Direct Hit," authorities also conducted surveillance in the Flushing area, listened in on telephone conversations between the alleged scammers and videotaped inside a Manhattan clinic where phony medical claims allegedly were filed, Brown said.

The fraud ring took advantage of the no-fault insurance law's provision that allows a person injured in an automobile crash to receive up to $50,000 for medical costs stemming from the crash. Those indicted are charged with bilking insurance carriers out of more than $1.6 million through allegedly fake medical claims, the district attorney said.