Full story in Fox News
By Rep. Mike Collins
Cornelius Garrison was murdered in New Orleans in 2020. He had been cooperating with federal authorities investigating a crash-for-cash insurance fraud scheme. For years, Garrison helped stage car crashes, directing participants to purposefully crash into trucks with the hopes of extracting a settlement from their companies. He would then funnel the passengers from these choreographed car wrecks to billboard attorney Vanessa Motta’s law firm, who would then file knowingly fraudulent lawsuits. For agreeing to expose this crime network, Garrison lost his life.
Nine defendants now face charges related to this particular staged automobile collision scheme, according to an indictment from the U.S. Department of Justice. So far, more than 63 individuals have been charged in a federal probe of staged car crashes in the New Orleans metro area. Unfortunately, these tactics are not isolated to New Orleans. They are occurring in cities across this country.
…
Today, motorists face choreographed threats when they drive on America’s roads. It may look like two sedans boxing in an eighty-thousand-pound tractor-trailer. The lead car slams the brakes. Physics takes over. Moments later, the truck has “rear-ended” a vehicle whose drivers set the whole scheme in motion. They call a lawyer. Lawsuits are filed. The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud says such scams help drain $308 billion annually from the U.S. economy, including $45 billion in property-and-casualty lines.
Commercial vehicles, including truck drivers and rideshares, are easy targets to these criminal networks because the liability limits are high, and juries often blame the big trucks and commercial companies. Premiums for independent truckers have jumped nearly 50% in three years.
In my home state of Georgia, 23% of every Uber ride goes directly into insurance costs. Fewer trucks on America’s roads mean higher freight rates and thinner inventories. Every shopper pays the price.
…
In New York, ground zero of the so-called “fraudemic,” a surge of staged-accident lawsuits and collusion between plaintiff lawyers and medical providers triggered investigations that forced one billboard attorney firm to drop hundreds of bogus claims. Since 2014, there have been 63 investigations involving U-Haul-related fraud, resulting in 47 arrests, including 20 criminal cases opened in 2019 alone.
A focused federal task force could put a stop to this. Stronger laws must also back the effort. I have introduced the “Staged Accident Fraud Prevention Act.” It would make causing a crash for a payday a specific federal crime with hard prison time. Fraud is already illegal, but current penalties were written for one-off crashes, not the exploding cottage industry of assembly-line scams, causing million-dollar payouts. The law should match the crime.
This bill still ensures justice for those who have been harmed in an accident. Genuine victims would still get their day in court. What vanishes is the incentive to invent injuries or recruit passengers as props.
…
The path forward is clear. The Department of Justice should launch the task force. Congress should pass the prevention act. Staged-accident fraud may not lead cable news segments nightly, but it drains wallets and endangers lives. Congress can — and should — end it.