Is Organized Crime Participating in Litigated Funding

We spend a lot of time reviewing data and connecting social links, which has brought us to some new conclusions regarding the people behind litigation funded cases. This post is the result of thousands of hours spent working with defense counsel and self-insureds on litigation-funded cases as well as those that are definitely headed in that direction.

A surprising pattern is emerging in litigation funded files — We are seeing markers that organized crime may have something to do with auto accident litigated claims. Clearly the proceeds lucrative enough to capture organized crime’s attention and are worth the effort of extending resources. 

If we look closely at our New York City and Los Angeles and So CA these are common themes:

• Organized crime owns, or has relationships with very small body shops and they are experts at wiping VIN / Plate / Driver License ID and providing falsified records instead. 
• Furthermore, the licenses and business registrations for the body shops are falsified, making it impossible to trace a body shop to an owner that can be identified.

This group builds a ghost vehicle – one that has never been seen before, with no record of a VIN, and license plates that have never even been recorded by toll booths or tow trucks in the history of the plate’s existence. They hire a driver with a phony name and phony driver license to go out to the highway and cause an accident with a heavy haul truck.

The claim is paid by the insurance company and tower, but then a “Passenger” in the vehicle comes forward two years later with unspecified injuries and goes into litigation-funded treatment and legal proceedings, pursuing the max limits of policy coverage and potentially a nuclear verdict. This Passenger also does not have a known profile in public records and cannot be identified because their identity and identifying documents are falsified.

Organized crime provides the vehicle and the driver/passenger combo, and a funded lawyer takes the case from there. It is a tidy loop. Are we calling out the mafia? Not necessarily. The organizations behind this strategy could be street gangs, coordinated chop shops, or any number of persons who have organized behind this kind of effort.

With each case we receive we get a little closer to pinpointing the connection. As we learn more, we will keep you posted on this blog. https://www.fraudsniffr.com/blog