Adrian Alexander has been arrested and charged for committing mail and wire fraud in the 31 Million dollars trip and falling fraud scheme. He is the fifth person to be charged in the case. Four other individuals have also been charged in the same case, including New York lawyers George Constantine and Marc Elefant and New York doctors Sady Ribeiro and Andrew Down.
According to official sources, Alexander is a litigation financier involved in the scheme to obtain fraudulent insurance reimbursement and other compensation for fraudulent trip and fall accidents.
Reports have indicated that Alexander and his co-accused have been engaged in a massive fraud scheme from January 2013 to April 2018. During this duration, they have been recruiting patients to stage or falsely claim to have suffered trip and fall accidents at specific locations throughout New York City. The defendants had recruited approximately 400 patients for this purpose. They instructed the patients to go to particular locations and deliberately fall or claim to fall and suffer injuries. After which, the lawyers involved in the fraud scheme filed fraudulent lawsuits on behalf of the patients against the owners of the accident sites or their insurance companies.
Reports have indicated that the patients’ recruited in the fraud schemes were instructed to receive medical treatment from doctors, including Andrew Dowd and Sady Ribeiro. To prolong lawsuits and increase the amount of compensation, the doctors often instructed the patients to undergo surgery and other medical procedures. The doctors did not take into consideration the implications of surgery on the health of the patients and convinced the patients to give their consent for a medical procedure for their own profits. In return, patients were paid an incentive of 1000 to 1500 dollars. The defendant in the fraud scheme recruited extremely poor individuals and drug addicts. The participants of the fraud scheme exploited these patients who were in desperate need.
Litigation funding companies, including Alexander’s company, provided funding to patients to cover legal and medical fees. These companies also paid referral fees of 1,000 to 25,000 dollars for each patient referred to them. The funding companies provided patients with high-interest rates, sometimes up to 50 percent on medical loans and up to 100 percent on personal loans. The interest rates were so high that the patients received a very small amount of the compensation awarded in the case.
The participants of the fraud scheme have exploited poor patients by charging high-interest rates and giving a very small percentage to them. Similarly, they undermined the medical conditions of patients for their profits. They had caused monetary loss to owners of accident locations and their insurance companies on fraudulent lawsuits. Reports have indicated that the fraud scheme defrauds the victims of more than 31 million dollars. The law enforcement agencies have incarcerated the 5 participants of the fraud scheme, and they are investigating the matter. If the law enforcement agencies prove the charges framed against the participants. In that case, they will be subject to imprisonment for approximately 20 years, and the court may also impose heavy compensation on the convicts.
