Ridgewood, NJ: Prosecutors say Craig Klein, of Ridgewood, filed misleading and faulty personal injury claims to auto insurers. He has previous convictions for insurance fraud. A former chiropractor has admitted guilt in running an auto insurance fraud scheme for the third time in a decade, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes announced Wednesday.
According to prosecutors, Craig Klein, 46, of Ridgewood, paid “runners” to steer accident victims to Hamilton Rehabilitation Center in Paterson and then submitted over 30 fraudulent personal injury claims to automobile insurers from Dec. 2010 and Feb. 2011.
Klein, a co-owner, shared in the profits from the faulty claims, receiving between $500 and $75,000, Valdes said.
He has previous convictions for similar schemes in 2003 in Essex County and in Massachusetts in 2008. The state suspended his license to practice in 2005. Klein admitted guilt in providing false information to insurance companies that his downtown Paterson office was actually legitimate, Valdes said.
Prosecutors allege the chiropractic business – billed as a treatment center for those injured in auto accidents – was anything but.
“He knew that non-chiropractors had an illegal disguised ownership interest in the facility and that the facility paid runners for illegal referrals,” Valdes said in a written statement.
Three other employees of Hamilton Rehabilitation Center were also indicted for their alleged roles in the scheme, according to prosecutors.
Klein pleaded guilty to a charge of theft by deception, a third degree charge that could land him behind bars for five years.
The investigation took over a year and remains ongoing, Valdes said.
Source: Ridgewood-Glenrock Patch