Fictionalized Insurance Fraud Stories of True Crimes
Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE
Insurance claims expert, consultant at Barry Zalma, Inc. and author/Publisher at ClaimSchool, Inc.
Fictionalized True Insurance Crime Books
Posted on April 1, 2020 by Barry Zalma
HEADS I WIN, TAILS YOU LOSE
A collection of columns originally published in the magazines “Insurance Journal,” “Insurance Week,” and “The John Cooke Insurance Fraud Report” insurance trade publications serving the insurance community in the United States that have been updated and revised.
The title, “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” is meant to describe insurance fraud as it works in the Unites States. It means that whenever a person succeeds in perpetrating an insurance fraud everyone who buys insurance is the loser.
Candy and Abel: Murder for Insurance Money
How a young lawyer and wise old investigator defeated an attempt at life insurance fraud.
Murder And Insurance Fraud Don’t Mix
My name is Marion Orpheus Montague. My friends, and some enemies, call me “MOM.” It is not a designation of my ability to nurture my clients. I have never been, nor will I ever be, maternal. I accept the play on my initials because it causes adversaries to underestimate me.
I am 66-years-old. My grayish blond hair is thin and my full beard is a bit scraggly. My face is round and often tinged with red. My nose is full, my eyes green and my cheeks bulge out to the sides trying to emulate the belly that precedes every other part of my body as I walk. People see me and do not believe that I am a private investigator. Seeing me they often think that I am on leave from my winter work as a Macy’s Santa Claus.
I like being underestimated. It makes my job as an investigator easier.
See how a fake robbery at a jewelry store led to murder and prison.
Murder & Old Lace: Solving Murders Performed for Insurance Money
When the women first met – 20 years ago at a Santa Monica health spa – Magogassasanian appeared taken with Gogolivesky. The women moved Alvarado into an apartment, then started applying for life insurance policies on him. They jointly took out four policies, each as 50% beneficiaries in addition to the individual policies they bought from my client. Gogolivesky also took out three more policies on her own while Magogassasanian only took out a single individual policy on Earnest. The two women pocketed nearly $6,000,000 in insurance benefits on Alvarado alone and $4,000,000 in insurance benefits on Earnest. They also recovered a total of $5,000,000 on the other six old men they killed.
Arson for Terrorism and Profit
How an Insurance Investigator and Insurance Lawyer Defeated a Plot to use a Fire to Fund Terrorism (c) 2020 by Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.
There are many excuses for the inability of the criminal justice system to effectively handle arson cases and eventually, almost universally, the prosecutor will find an excuse not to prosecute an arson case regardless of the amount of evidence produced. As a result, with regard to an arson-for-profit scheme, the time, investigative work, and litigation is left to the insurer to refuse to pay a claim based on fraud, pay the investigators and lawyers needed to prosecute a civil fraud defense to a fraudulent claim created with an arson-for-profit scheme.
The following story is based upon an attempted arson-for-profit that took up a large portion of my professional career. Although fiction, the story is based on a true crime that involved the efforts of the intended victims – an English insurer and an American insurer – the work of professional fire cause and origin investigators, private investigators, insurance claims handlers, insurance coverage lawyers and insurers who refused to pay tribute to a criminal. After five years of investigation and litigation the defendants established that the arson-for-profit scheme was designed for more than cash but was intended to obtain funds to support a terrorist organization whose purpose was to kill or maim anyone connected to the government of Germany.The names, places, professions, organizations, fire departments, police, prosecutorial agencies and of the individuals involved have been changed to protect the innocent, criminal, and professional.
M.O.M. & The Taipei Fraud
How an Experienced Adjuster Defeated a $7 Million Fake Burglary Claim
The problem is that each option the insurers have available have a down side and Feng is represented by a lawyer who has proved highly successful in suing insurers and collecting large compensatory and punitive damage awards. Since the claims exceed $6 million dollars, he can expect, applying the law set out by the U.S. Supreme Court in State Farm Mut. Automobile Ins. Co. v. Campbell and BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore as much as $60 million in punitive damages. So I need to explain to the insurers that they face an exposure anywhere from their policy limits to ten times the policy limit. They need the courage of their convictions to reject this major claim.
Arson-For-Profit Fire at the Cowboy Bar & Grill
A true crime novel based on the experience of the author, Barry Zalma, who for more than 51 years has acted for insurers who were faced with arson-for-profit, one of the most dangerous insurance fraud schemes. The book explains how an insurance claims adjuster, working with a fire cause and origin expert, a forensic accountant and insurance coverage lawyer, were able to defeat an arson-for-profit scheme and obtain a judgment requiring the perpetrator to take nothing and repay the insurer all of its expenses in defeating the claim.
? 2020 – Barry Zalma
Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE, now limits his practice to service as an insurance consultant specializing in insurance coverage, insurance claims handling, insurance bad faith and insurance fraud almost equally for insurers and policyholders. He also serves as an arbitrator or mediator for insurance related disputes. He practiced law in California for more than 44 years as an insurance coverage and claims handling lawyer and more than 52 years in the insurance business. He is available at https://www.zalma.com and [email protected].
Mr. Zalma is the first recipient of the first annual Claims Magazine/ACE Legend Award.
Over the last 52 years Barry Zalma has dedicated his life to insurance, insurance claims and the need to defeat insurance fraud. He has created the following library of books and other materials to make it possible for insurers and their claims staff to become insurance claims professionals.
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