BALESTRIERE BREAKS "PAPER ACCIDENT" INSURANCE FRAUD RING
Assistant Attorney General John Balestriere directed a year and a half long
investigation into an organized gang who pretended to engage in automobile
accidents in order to defraud multiple insurance companies over a period of
years. Balestriere lead over a dozen investigators, auditors, and analysts
into an investigation into what represented the nexus of street crime,
organized crime, and white collar crime, as those who perpetrated the fraud
included gang members, medical professionals, lawyers, and members of law
enforcement. The investigation culminated in the indictment of almost 20
people, after Balestriere presented dozens of witnesses -- including
cooperators, expert witnesses, insurance company representatives, and
others -- and hundreds of pieces of evidence to a grand jury in Brooklyn.
