NEW YORK – Officials said Maxo Jean conspired with others to cause 30 car crashes with innocent motorists so he could collect insurance benefits.
On Thursday, federal judge Denny Chin sentenced Jean to 10 years in prison for being involved in a multi-year insurance fraud scheme, officials said.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Chin ordered Jean, 52, of New York, to forfeit $ 586,831 and to pay restitution to his victims.
The fraudulent insurance claims filed by Jean and his co-conspirators totaled over $1.5 million, of which they succeeded in collecting nearly $600,000 in payments from ten different insurance companies, according to prosecutors.
Authorities said Jean further profited from the scheme by collecting more than $150,000 in insurance company payouts and in kickbacks from the corrupt medical clinics.
A jury convicted Jean of conspiracy to commit mail, wire, and health care fraud in January after a one-week trial, officials said.
“A car crash is an awful experience,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said. “Yet Maxo Jean directed others to cause crashes with innocent drivers, just so that he and his co-conspirators could line their pockets. His scheme quite literally added insult to injury for the innocent drivers and the insurance companies he defrauded.”
According to the evidence presented in court:
From 2006 through 2011, Jean was involved in the insurance scam by finding cars, recruiting crews of drivers and passengers, and then sending the crews out to hit cars driven by innocent motorists.
Jean paid the drivers and passengers he recruited to crash into cars driven by innocent people so that the supposed “accidents” would appear to be real accidents.
Following the crashes, officials said Jean took his co-conspirators to corrupt medical clinics and directed them to submit to unnecessary treatment, including unnecessary surgeries, for their non-existent injuries, so that the treatments could be billed to car insurance companies.
Authorities said he encouraged his co-conspirators to submit to treatments that he thought were likely to result in the largest payments from insurance companies, such as unnecessary back and shoulder surgeries.
Jean and his co-conspirators then filed fraudulent no-fault insurance claims and insurance claims that fraudulently alleged pain and suffering.