Financial metropolis New York, image source: iris Vallejo on Pixabay
Cases of insurance fraud are now the order of the day. On the other hand, it is different when the head of an insurance company defrauds his customers with fraudulent intent in order to get their money. In New York, an insurance executive has now pleaded guilty to stealing a whopping $40 million from healthcare and defrauding lenders.
In the specific case Anthony Riccardi, owner and manager of insurance firm Employee Benefit Solutions LLC (“EBS”) admitted to embezzling and stealing customer healthcare funds and defrauding multiple lenders with other accomplices between 2015 and 2019. The trick was incredibly simple.
In one case, his company billed an auto company headquartered in Westchester County, New York, every two months, detailing all of the provider’s employee health care expenses for that two-week period. In addition, EBS managed a bank account on their behalf that was specifically intended for the payment of medical expenses. The company in question also replenished each check register with the amount billed, expecting that EBS would promptly pay the healthcare provider debt. During this period, the dealership transferred approximately $26 million to EBS to pay for healthcare claims.
In reality, however, a significant number of the alleged checks listed on the EBS invoices were never actually presented by the providers. Instead, approximately $17.87 million in health care payments were misappropriated, with the vast majority of EBS simply being transferred to its own operating account, where they were used by EBS’s managers and owners for non-health care expenses. A review of bank records, for example, shows that Riccardi and his co-defendants allegedly used the auto company’s health care funds for their home mortgages and for a personal credit card account with spending on boating, luxury cars and golf.
Riccardi now faces a possible maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. His co-accused Erin Verespy was previously sentenced to 66 months in prison after pleading guilty to wire and bank fraud before a United States District Judge. The verdict against Riccardi is scheduled to be announced on July 23, 2023.
Author: VW editorial team
