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February 15, 2006

TWENTY SIX INDIVIDUALS INDICTED FOR FRAUD AND STAGING AUTO ACCIDENTS IN TAMPA

Tampa, Florida - United States Attorney Paul I. Perez and Special Agent in Charge of the Tampa Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Carl Whitehead today announced the unsealing of four indictments charging a total of 26 defendants with conspiracy to commit mail and insurance fraud. The indictments were returned by a federal grand jury in November and December 2005, and were unsealed today as agents began arresting those indicted this morning. As of noon today, 19 of the 26 were in custody. The respective indictments charge the defendants with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and numerous substantive counts of mail fraud. The maximum penalties for conspiracy are five years' imprisonment and a fine of $250,000, while the maximum penalties for mail fraud are 20 years' imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.

According to the Indictments, from October 2000 through January 2003, the defendants conspired to commit mail fraud by staging automobile accidents and then causing false claims, purportedly for medical care, pain, suffering, property and other monetary damages resulting from injury and loss suffered as a result of the staged automobile accidents, to be made against various insurance companies through the use of the U.S. mail. The investigation conducted by the FBI and other agencies involved an undercover company and included the cooperation and assistance of American International Group, Inc. (AIG) and the Hartford Insurance Company during the course of the investigation. Trident Venture Group Inc. (TVG) was the company which held itself out as an advanced funding company for insurance claims arising from automobile accidents, but which was in truth, the undercover investigative operation of the FBI designed to investigate insurance fraud. An advanced funding company is an entity which will pay a limited monetary amount, in advance, on an anticipated settlement for a bodily injury (BI) claim by an individual against an insurance company. In exchange for making this advanced payment, the funding company becomes entitled to collect a greater, contracted for, amount from the individual upon settlement of the BI claim by the individual against the insurance company.

The defendants named in the four Indictments are:

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Florida Department of Financial Services, National Insurance Crime Bureau, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Internal Revenue Service, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and the Tampa Police Department. The cases will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Donald L. Hansen.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of the federal criminal laws, and every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty.