Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces 16 Arrests in State Crackdown on Auto Insurance Fraud

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that a joint investigative partnership by members of the New York State Police (NYSP) and the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) resulted in the arrests of 16 individuals as part of ongoing and joint auto insurance fraud investigations. The joint investigation uncovered nearly $500,000 in attempted fraudulent claims across more than a dozen cases in New York City and Suffolk, Onondaga, Monroe, and Erie counties. The arrests follow major reforms enacted earlier this year by Governor Hochul as part of her statewide effort to combat staged crashes, fraudulent insurance claims and other schemes that drive up auto insurance costs for New Yorkers.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor’s Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

 You've heard me say I'm going to do everything I can to drive down the cost of living in the State of New York. I have no tolerance for any individuals who commit fraud in ways that drive up costs for others or abuse public dollars for their own personal gain. And I've used every tool in my arsenal to stop exactly that. Now despite headwinds out of Washington that are driving up the cost of just about everything, we've been trying to make some real progress. And now we're doubling down on our efforts to lower costs.

First, I want to talk about taking on the rampant auto insurance fraud plaguing New York. It drives up what New Yorkers pay every single day. Today, I want to update you on that progress — specifically, a crackdown that has been underway, resulting in numerous of arrests in New York City and across the state.

So why are we cracking down? Because auto insurance is one of the glaring examples of where New York is an outlier compared to the rest of the nation. Now, in New York, the average New Yorker pays some of the highest auto-insurance rates in the entire country — about $4,000 a year, almost $1,500 more than the national average — and I'm the first person to ask why. We found out that it's because New York has a broken system — broken for decades, rife with frivolous lawsuits and legal loopholes, and also making it an easy target for criminals and corrupt doctors and organized fraud crime rings that stage crashes and orchestrate brazen insurance frauds. And all that fraud drives up what New Yorkers pay in their insurance premium. Over the last five years, we've seen a triple-digit increase in staged crashes related to fraud. In 2023, New York had 1,700 such incidents, the second-highest in the entire nation.

But since then, we've been working hard. In August, I stood with District Attorney of Queens Melinda Katz, and we put these criminals on notice. As a result, we took down some of the State's most egregious fraudsters. And today, at my direction, the State Police and the Department of Financial Services have joined forces to aggressively go after these criminals.

I'm pleased to announce the results of those efforts. Our State Police have now arrested 16 individuals across the State related to auto-insurance fraud. The Bronx had the highest number of arrests. We've seen major crackdowns in Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Long Island, as well as in Rochester and Buffalo.

If you've never seen a staged crash, count yourself lucky. But let me paint the picture for you. Imagine you're approaching an intersection with a stop sign. You come to a full stop and make sure that all's clear before proceeding. Then out of nowhere, another vehicle slams into you, and the driver accuses you of running that stop sign. Then later, the fraudster files multiple insurance claims, including thousands of dollars of phony medical bills.

And I have to say, this is not hypothetical. It happened in Brooklyn, and we have the dashcam footage to prove every bit of it. It helped us find that fraudster and prosecute them. That person's been arrested and charged with numerous crimes, including staging a motor vehicle accident. In the Bronx, there was an incident where two people staged a crash. Not only did they put New Yorkers at risk with this behavior — they filed claims for over $70,000 in fake medical bills. But thanks to the efforts of our State Police and DFS, they've been arrested and charged with insurance fraud and attempted grand larceny. Just two examples of how our crackdown is working and delivering results. Now, by taking down these individuals, we expect that — as well as the insurance reforms that we were successful in securing in our latest budget — those combined will start to lower auto-insurance rates in the near term.

And this is just the beginning. Even more investigations are underway. More arrests are on the horizon because I refuse to let this lawlessness prevail. I refuse to let New Yorkers be put in danger and let these would-be fraudsters drive up rates for the rest of us. Like I said, mark my words: these first 16 are just the beginning. To anyone who thinks they can get away with a crash, think again. We're onto you. On behalf of New Yorkers, I want to thank the brave men and women of our State Police who spearheaded this effort.

And there's another issue I want to talk about. I want to acknowledge another massive effort to combat fraud and abuse, this time in the Medicaid program. This morning, the New York State Department of Health and the Office of Medicaid Inspector General joined State and federal law enforcement agencies in a coordinated crackdown of suspected fraud in social adult daycare programs. This is an active investigation, so there's limits to what I can share today. But I can tell you this has been a months-long investigation in close partnership with the federal government.

I personally went to Washington and went to CMS Administrator Oz, and to discuss how we can team up together to combat fraud in the Medicaid system. We're targeting providers we believe who engaged in illegal activity, ranging from money laundering to kickbacks to improper billing and other fraudulent activities. My administration has spent years strengthening oversight of the program and safeguarding taxpayer dollars, resulting in over 100 referrals by my administration to the Attorney General for investigation and prosecution. By cracking down on fraud and abuse, overall we've saved over $15 billion in Medicaid money since 2021.

But our work is far from finished. Let me be clear: New York has zero tolerance for anyone who steals from taxpayers, because every dollar lost to fraud is a dollar that should be used to help New Yorkers to get care and services they desperately need. So my message to anyone looking to cheat the system: we will find you, we will prosecute you and we will hold you accountable.

Now, for more details on the specific auto-insurance case, I want to turn it over to Superintendent Steven James to talk about our ongoing efforts and what's next in store.

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