Clients in the News: ICW Group
Insurance Fraud Hall of Shame: ICW Group's Best of the Worst
December 3 , 2009
Claims Magazine, Kirk Madsen Byliner
The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud wasn't the only organization with appalling fraud cases; insurer ICW Group responded to our call for memorable busts with a doozy of their own.
Armand Tiano, a former lieutenant and 26-year veteran in Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, took a job as a concrete truck driver after leaving the Sheriff's Office. Shortly after taking the new job, he was injured, claiming that a chute had disconnected from the truck, which struck his arm and back and left him with a disabling back injury. ICW Group processed it as a legitimate claim after Tiano had told his doctor that he could no longer perform his duties as a truck driver, and that he could no longer lift or pull heavy objects. The doctor took him at his word.
But the empployer learned that Tiano had been involved in activities that contradicted his disability claim. The employer reported the suspicious activities to ICW Group. The carrier's special investigations unit initiated surveillance and found Tiano competing in a power-lifting competition in Las Vegas and racing super-charged pickups.
ICW Group filed a report with California Department of Insurance's fraud division and the Santa Clara Conty District Attorney, who opened a case against Tiano. Unrelated to the disability claim, the criminal investigators found that Tiano was also involved in a multimillion-dollar charity fraud scheme, and he was tried in criminal court on multiple charges of fraud and tax evasion in a trial that lasted for more than a year.
Kirk Madsen, manager of ICW Group's special investigations unit, testified before the grand jury and during the trial. Tiano was convited and sentenced to 17 years, eight months in prisor for insurance fraud, conspiracy, grand theft, embezzlement, perjury and tax fraud.
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