The Hawaiian
The following is a fictionalized True Crime Story of Insurance Fraud
from an Expert who explains why Insurance Fraud is a “Heads I Win, Tails
You Lose” situation for Insurers.
Post 4734
The insured was a contractor in Honolulu. He made an excellent living
cheating his customers. The insured’s most lucrative scheme was an
electronic vermin killer. It consisted of a long wire and a transformer.
The contractor strung the wire around a house and plugged it in a wall.
The device, charged with low voltage from the transformer, allegedly
repelled vermin. The insured guaranteed that all roaches, flying insects
and rodents could not pass the charge in the wire.
When it didn’t work and a customer called to complain the insured would
ignore the complaints.
Since the tropical Hawaiian climate is a prime breeding ground for
insects, the insured had no lack of customers. He bought a Ferrari
sports car with the profits.
After gaining her confidence the adjuster confronted the secretary with
the result of his investigation. He told her he knew that the appraisals
were not done by the jeweler. He showed her where he had discovered
that the typewriter used to type the description of the items of jewelry
was different from the typewriter used to type the name of the
appraiser. He told her that he liked her and would be very sorry if she
was involved in aiding her boss in committing a crime.
She began to cry. When he calmed her down, she confessed that she had
typed in all of the descriptions and the values of the jewelry. Her
boss, the insured, took the print ball out of the IBM Selectric
typewriter and smashed it under his shoe. If asked, she was to say that
his children broke the typewriter while playing with it. The adjuster
thanked her, paid for lunch and suggested she get a new job. He told her
he would do what he could to keep her out of criminal problems.
He then got permission from his client, the insurer, to deny the claim.
He wrote a simple brief, letter to the insured stating as follows: “Your
claim is denied because it was presented by you with the knowledge that
it was false and fraudulent.”
He said nothing more. The adjuster, as required by law, reported his
findings to the local police agency and to the U.S. Postal Inspectors.
Both promised to complete a prompt criminal investigation and prosecute
the insured for insurance fraud. The adjuster waited, patiently, for
five years. Every twelve months he would ask the police concerning their
investigation. He would always receive the same response “We’re working
on it.”
Five years elapsed since his conviction. He is still making a living as a
contractor in Hawaii defrauding his customers. He paid when the
probation officer caught him what he told the probation officer he could
afford. In five years the insured paid, on the restitution order that
is a condition of his probation, a total of $250.00. His probation is
over.
The crime did not succeed. He did not collect $500,000. The insurance
company did not succeed. It paid out over $10,000 to its investigators
which it will never recover and the ordered restitution was never paid.
Adapted from my book "Insurance Fraud Costs Everyone" available at
Available as a Kindle Book and Available as a Paperback from Amazon.com
https://www.amazon.com/Candy-Abel-Murder-Insurance-Money/dp/1976823757/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1517924833&sr=1-1&keywords=%22candy+and+abel%22.
Read the full article at https://zalma.com/blog
(c) 2024 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.
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