[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 70 (Friday, May 23, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S5147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               S. 625, THE AUTO CHOICE REFORM ACT OF 1997

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. On April 22, 1997, I introduced S. 625, the Auto 
Choice Reform Act of 1997, along with Senators Joe Lieberman, Mitch 
McConnell, Slade Gorton, and Rod Grams. S. 625 is designed to reform 
the Nation's auto-insurance system by giving motorists a low-cost 
alternative for bodily injury coverage that provides quicker, more 
comprehensive recovery of economic losses.
  The Auto Choice Reform Act would remove many incentives for fraud, 
which is endemic to the current auto-insurance system. On Wednesday, 
May 21, 1997, for instance the Nassau County District Attorney's office 
arrested 20 people involved in a massive insurance fraud scam. Those 
arrested by operation backbone included lawyers, chiropractors, and a 
doctor. Our bill would eliminate many of the incentives that promote 
this kind of abuse.
  I ask that the Newsday article, ``Real Charges: Fake Injuries Lead to 
20 Arrests in Insurance Scams,'' be printed in the Record.
  The article follows:

                 [From Newsday, Thursday, May 22, 1997]

                              Real Charges

                            (By Pete Bowles)

       After prepping a ``patient'' for four minutes on how to 
     fake injuries during a medical exam--including a 
     demonstration on moaning ``ooh and aah''--Hempstead 
     chiropractor Martin Drasin said his client was ready for an 
     award-winning performance, according to a videotape made by 
     an undercover investigator.
       ``I know how they are going to try to trick you up,'' 
     Drasin told the agent, who carried a hidden video recorder. 
     Drasin advised the man on what to do when asked to move his 
     legs up and down at the exam. ``Give an ooh and an aah and 
     say, `I can't do that,' '' he said, and added: ``Move slow. 
     You'll get the Oscar here.''
       Drasin, 42, whose video performance was played by Nassau 
     District Attorney Denis Dillon at a news conference, was 
     among 20 people--including 12 chiropractors, four attorneys 
     and an orthopedist--charged yesterday with submitting 
     fraudulent claims for automobile no-fault insurance, 
     disability and workers' compensation insurance.
       Dillon said the 20 were nabbed during a two-year 
     investigation called Operation Backbone, in which law-
     enforcement agents posing as accident victims sought legal 
     and medical assistance from attorneys and chiropractors. The 
     targets had been selected by insurance companies who 
     suspected skullduggery.
       All the meetings were recorded, Dillon said. Playing the 
     part of accident victims were undercover operatives from the 
     DA's office, the Nassau County Police Department, the 
     National Insurance Crime Bureau and the U.S. Postal 
     Inspection Service.
       All but one of the suspects were arrested yesterday on a 
     variety of charges, including insurance fraud, grand larceny, 
     scheming to defraud and falsifying business records.
       Freeport attorney Alvin Dorfman, 62, a former Democratic 
     committeeman who challenged Dillon for the Democratic 
     designation for district attorney in 1974, was said to be in 
     Israel on vacation and is expected to surrender next week for 
     arraignment in U.S. District Court in Uniondale. He was 
     charged with mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud.
       ``Both my clients maintain they are completely innocent,'' 
     said Dorfman's attorney, Stephen Scaring, who also represents 
     Garden City attorney Gerard McLoughlin, 49, who was charged 
     with insurance fraud and attempted grand larceny. ``We are 
     somewhat shocked that this kind of undercover operation would 
     occur, and we are confident that the tapes themselves will 
     likely establish the innocence of each of these defendants.''
       Seventeen defendants pleaded innocent in First District 
     Court in Hempstead and were released. They face up to 7 years 
     in prison if convicted. Two others, Dorfman's legal 
     assistant, Mariela Brito, 33, and Woodbury chiropractor 
     Jonathan Tepper, were arraigned in federal court in Uniondale 
     on mail fraud and conspiracy charges and ordered held on 
     $50,000 bond each. They face up to 5 years' imprisonment if 
     convicted.
       Calls left at the offices of the 20 were not returned.
       At a news conference with local and federal law-enforcement 
     officials, Dillon said the medical providers billed insurance 
     companies for services not rendered and gave undercover 
     agents letters stating they were disabled and unable to work 
     because of injuries suffered in accidents. He said the 
     accidents were on ``paper only'' and were filed with police 
     as a ruse.
       In some instances, Dillon said, the agents received 
     chiropractic treatment fewer than 12 times but the 
     chiropractors billed insurance companies for more than 100 
     visits.
       He charged that chiropractor George Mitzman, 41, of 
     Westbury, treated one agent 11 times and billed the insurance 
     company for 150 visits. Another defendant, chiropractor 
     Michael Roth, 29, with offices in Bellmore and Syosset, 
     treated an agent once but billed for 90 visits, Dillon said.
       Dillon said the four attorneys assisted the purported 
     accident victims in fabricating phony lost-wages claims, 
     while in fact the victims said they were working, and 
     submitted falsified documents supporting the claims. He said 
     the attorneys also referred victims to medical providers to 
     obtain disability letters and advised them how to exaggerate 
     injuries.
       In one case cited by Dillon, Hempstead attorney Mitchell 
     Rachlin, 47, was charged with collecting more than $626,000 
     from his insurance carrier for a phony disability claim he 
     filed in 1990 for injuries he sustained in an accident.
       Rachlin, who claimed to be totally disabled, was shown on a 
     videotape walking around his law office as he advised an 
     undercover agent on how to file a claim for lost wages for a 
     traffic accident.
       On another videotape played by Dillon, Dr. Martin Lehman, 
     64, a Wantagh orthopedist, is shown meeting with an 
     undercover operative who tells Lehman she was working despite 
     being injured in an accident. ``You are not working as far as 
     insurance is concerned,'' Lehman is heard telling the woman. 
     Without performing a physical examination, Lehman gave the 
     woman a disability form, Dillon said.
       Also charged were: chiropractors Robert Moore, 43, and Jay 
     Levine, 44, with offices in Franklin Square, and their 
     receptionist, Maureen MacPherson, 30; Rockville Centre 
     chiropractor Joseph Huseman III, 39; Franklin Square attorney 
     Scott Garil, 29; North Bellmore chiropractor Susan Schulman, 
     36; Plainview chiropractor Christopher Haas, 32; Oceanside 
     chiropractor Jeffrey Finkelstein, 41; Lynbrook chiropractor 
     Steven Angel, 40; Port Washington, chiropractor Charles 
     Schnier, 45; and Robert Cannon, 59, of Massapequa, a medical-
     supply distributor.

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