Thirty-four people were arrested in across the state of Louisiana following a two-month long investigation into widespread insurance fraud, the
Times-Picayune reported this week.
According to the Louisiana State Police, the arrested individuals were involved in a variety of fraudulent activities including staging crashes, faking injury claims, forging medical records, inflating property claims and engaging in workers’ compensation fraud.
One particular case involved LaPlace, Louisiana resident Eric Kenner who paid Trevor Sanders to stage a crash with a Cadillac Escalade in a rented U-Haul truck. Kenner reported an injury claim to Repwest Insurance Co. for himself and his son, who was not in the car at the time of the accident.
Sanders was re-booked for the fraud charge, having already been incarcerated on another offense, while Kenner remains at large.
Others involved a group of four people in New Orleans who staged a crash in March and “provided material misrepresentation relating to a property loss with injury” to
GEICO and
State Farm.
The police officers involved in the investigation worked closely with the Louisiana Department of Insurance to bring the individuals to justice.
In a press release, the Louisiana State Police warned against the detrimental effects of insurance fraud.
“Whereas motor vehicle crashes are a daily occurrence on our roadways, intentiaonal or staged crashes cost the US property/casualty insurance industry billions of dollars in fraudulent claims each year,” the department said.
