2021 Insurance Fraud Hall of Shame: Their depravity knows no bounds
The latest entrants into this dubious group performed unnecessary surgeries, committed murder and sold illegal drugs to unwitting patients.
Mask up fast and hide while you can; a new set of viral spreaders have arrived. Let’s un-welcome the newest members of the Insurance Fraud Hall of Shame.
The No-Class of 2021 was chosen by the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud. The shamers are this year’s most notorious convicted insurance fraud criminals.
The barons of bleak crashed into trucks, drowned children, burned neighborhoods and mutilated women with scalpels — all to try and collectively steal nearly $700 million of insurance money.
Yet these shamers perform a backhanded public service. Their downfalls encourage honesty and break open the myth that insurance fraud is a victimless crime.
People relate to true-life crime stories. Promoting the shamers helps consumers better grasp insurance fraud as a public safety threat — and a financial drain that depletes all Americans by raising our premiums. Insurance fraud is the crime we all pay for.
The shamers also teach consumer deterrence: You’ll get convicted, lose your job, alienate your family, and enjoy years of cold jail cells. Is ruining your own life and others’ worth the risk? Let’s induct this shameful lot.
Freeway collision crimes. Truckers were stalked and terrified by a crash ring that hunted down big rigs, maneuvering them into high-speed sideswipes and rear-enders on freeways crisscrossing New Orleans.
Damian Labeaud ran the percussive insurance con. His road gang rifled insurers with inflated and bogus injury claims — often by ghost passengers who weren’t even in his cars during the collisions.
Labeaud’s attack cars thumped into trucks at least 31 times. He and his drivers lied to insurers that the truckers were at fault. Labeaud accurately figured the trucking firms had large insurance policies and deep enough pockets to pay the phony injury claims. He also forced some so-called “passengers” to get unneeded surgery to further inflate insurance payouts.
Two freeway collisions drove home the point:
In one setup, Labeaud drove a Chevy Avalanche into a truck — yet claimed the trucker caused the wreck. Labeaud’s colluding attorney arranged bogus injury treatment for his “passengers” — some who weren’t even in the vehicle. Lucinda Thomas also had unneeded neck surgery to increase her insurance take. The truck’s dashcam tipped off investigators, helping blow the lid off of Labeaud’s operation.
Lois Russell, Tanya Givens and John Diggs teamed with passenger James “Curtis” Williams to stage a separate wreck with a tractor-trailer. Roderick Hickman drove Russell’s car. He rammed the 18-wheeler and fled with Labeaud in a getaway car. Russell lied to the police, saying that she drove the “hammer” car. She made false injury claims along with Givens and Diggs. Insurers paid out $272,500.
Federal prosecutors dismantled Labeaud’s ring, earning dozens of guilty pleas. Labeaud will spend up to five years in federal prison when sentenced. While the crash ring indictments have largely wrapped up, the sudden murder of alleged crash ring leader Cornelius Garrison remains unsolved. He was targeted because of his potential testimony as a witness for the State, according to reports. The Louisiana State Police played a key role in working with the FBI during the investigation.
Hookah hustle. Bounced from their failed hookah bar after feuding with their landlord, Imad and Bahaa Dawara botched a $750,000 insurance arson fire that nearly wrecked a historic Philadelphia neighborhood. The searing fire and billowing black smoke drove hundreds of people from their businesses and homes, killed pets and caused millions in damage.
The Dawaras were $64,000 behind on rent. Their landlord also refused to let them hire a DJ or use hookahs. So the brothers closed the bar, and the landlord booted them out permanently.
Stealing insurance money was their best hope of recouping their failed investment, the Dawaras decided. They bought a $750,000 accidental-fire policy on the bar, which was no longer in business — just 16 days before setting a gasoline blaze in the basement.
Flames and smoke spread rapidly in the busy neighborhood of historic old buildings. Panic broke out — this was Presidents’ Day, the streets were crowded with visitors enjoying the sights. Frightened, people ran. The fire nearly razed the entire building.
Two firefighters were injured. The block was closed for months. Some residents and businesses never returned.
Clues quickly piled up. Imad had repeatedly demanded that their commercial broker explain how the brothers would be paid if a fire broke out. Imad also threatened to burn down the building during their feud with the landlord.
In a separate con, Imad lowballed his stated income to reel in Medicaid benefits while living in a $580,000 house.
The Dawaras were each given nine years in federal prison and must repay $22 million for the damages they caused.
Pier review: deadly drownings. Ali F. Elmezayen’s two young sons were tragically inconvenient. Young Elhassan (age 13) and Abdelkarim (age eight) were autistic — too troublesome for Elmezayen. The kids had to go, he decided. Best to drown them and his ex-wife, and then collect $3.4 million of life insurance.
So Elmezayan strapped his children tightly into car seats in the back of his 1998 Honda Civic. He raced the car off a pier and splashed into the ocean at the Port of Los Angeles.
The kids never had a chance. Elmezayen crawled out through the driver-side window as the car sank — leaving the kids to drown. His former wife, Rabab Diab, couldn’t swim. She survived only because a fisherman threw her a life preserver after she escaped from the sinking car.
Elmezayen had planned ahead. He paid nearly $6,000 a year in premiums for the accidental death policies — yet earned less than $30,000 a year. He phoned at least two insurers to confirm they wouldn’t investigate death claims he made two years after he bought the policies. The kids drowned two years and 12 days after he purchased the final policy.
Elmezayen also lied to the insurers that the murders were accidental. And he’d posed as Diab while secretly communicating with the insurers behind her back. The federal judge landed hard on Elmezayen with an emphatic 212 years in prison.
Editor’s Note: This is Part 1 of a two-part series highlighting the latest entrants into the Hall of Shame. Part 2 will appear tomorrow.
Arinze Ifekauche (arinze@insurancefraud.org) is the director of communications for the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud. For more information visit www.InsuranceFraud.org.
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