Mikhail Zemlyansky was nothing if not ambitious. The Russian native masterminded a sprawling crime empire that bled New York auto insurers with seeming impunity.
His gang made at least $400 million in dirty crash-injury claims, federal prosecutors say. That audacious money haul is nearly the team value of the Baltimore Orioles. It was the largest auto-fraud scheme in U.S. history until the gang was broken open this winter.
If the federal RICO charges hold up, then Zemlyansky will be an ominous signpost of the looting power of organized crime kleptocracies that keep infiltrating the insurance industry. Alpha gangs are setting up efficient corporate-quality theft machines that are adroitly exploiting seams in the insurance system with increasingly seismic heists.
More Large-Scale Fraud Gangs
Organized crime isn’t new to insurance fraud. Gangs have assaulted auto insurers, Medicare, and other insurance programs for years. What appears to be new is an increased penetration of insurance by organized unsavories. The question is whether steroidal stealing is so routine that it’s becoming a new norm for insurance fraud.
“These crimes are often the work of well-organized, sophisticated rings whose successful schemes generate enormous profits for the criminals and result in equally enormous losses to insurance carriers and, ultimately, the public,” said a 2011 New York strategy report on how to combat auto fraud in the state.
His gang made at least $400 million in dirty crash-injury claims, federal prosecutors say. That audacious money haul is nearly the team value of the Baltimore Orioles. It was the largest auto-fraud scheme in U.S. history until the gang was broken open this winter.
If the federal RICO charges hold up, then Zemlyansky will be an ominous signpost of the looting power of organized crime kleptocracies that keep infiltrating the insurance industry. Alpha gangs are setting up efficient corporate-quality theft machines that are adroitly exploiting seams in the insurance system with increasingly seismic heists.
More Large-Scale Fraud Gangs
Organized crime isn’t new to insurance fraud. Gangs have assaulted auto insurers, Medicare, and other insurance programs for years. What appears to be new is an increased penetration of insurance by organized unsavories. The question is whether steroidal stealing is so routine that it’s becoming a new norm for insurance fraud.
“These crimes are often the work of well-organized, sophisticated rings whose successful schemes generate enormous profits for the criminals and result in equally enormous losses to insurance carriers and, ultimately, the public,” said a 2011 New York strategy report on how to combat auto fraud in the state.
