SIU Today Winter 2021 - 17

Coalition Update
By Arinze Ifekauche
Introducing The 2021 Insurance
Fraud Hall of Shame
Keep your social distance from these lowlifes! This is the 2021
Insurance Fraud Hall of Shame.
Each year the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud selects the
worst insurance fraud criminals for induction into our Hall of
Shame. These convicted insurance criminals are examples of how
dangerous, depraved, and destructive insurance fraud crimes can be.
This year's Shamers crashed into trucks, drowned children, burned
neighborhoods and mutilated women with scalpels - all to try
and collectively steal nearly $700 million of insurance money.
Their crimes and our efforts to highlight their convictions, serve as
a reminder to others that there are consequences attached to these
terrible acts of greed. Insurance fraud is not a victimless crime.
Now let's induct this shameful lot:
A DEADLY DAY AT THE PIER
Onlookers heard the tires screech as Ali F. Elmezayen's car sped down
a commercial fishing wharf and shot into the Los Angeles harbor.
The Honda Civic quickly sank in 20-30 feet of murky salt water.
Elmezayen swam out through the open driver-side window. His
two autistic kids were tightly strapped in child seats. They never
had a chance and drowned, still in their seats. Elmezayen also tried
to drown his ex-wife. Rabab Diab couldn't swim yet luckily she was
rescued by fisherman after barely escaping through the car window.
Elmezayen portrayed the wreck as a horrible accident when in
fact it was stone-cold murder. The Egyptian native bought more
than $7 million of life and accidental-death policies on himself,
the kids' lives and Diab.
Elmezayen earned less than $30,000 a year in wages. Yet he
somehow found the money to pay more than $6,000 of insurance
premiums annually to keep the policies afloat.
Prior to the incident, he frequently contacted the insurers, asking to
confirm they wouldn't investigate for fraud if he made the claims two
years after buying the policies. That's the time window that life insurers
typically require for investigating deaths of insureds. Elmezayen raced
his car off the pier just two years and 12 days after the policy purchases.
He soon collected more than $260,000 on his dead sons' lives. He used
part of the money to buy real estate in Egypt, and a boat.
A federal judge sentenced Elmezayen to 212 years in prison.
OB-GYN MAIMS PATIENTS FOR $21 MILLION
Dr. Javaid Perwaiz, an OB-GYN, convinced many of his patients
to have painful hysterectomies and other irreversible surgeries
they didn't need, maiming many for life. Perwaiz's supercharged
scalpel made him Ferrari-rich from nearly $21 million of dollars
he received from false and inflated insurance billings.
Fully 173 women reported unneeded surgeries under the
Chesapeake, Va. OG-GYN's supposed care. Perwaiz also botched
many of the procedures; some women still suffer from chronic pain
and other complications. Patients often were left with large scars as
permanent reminders of his money-churning insurance scheme.
Perwaiz warned patient Donna Ingram-Allen that cancer was imminent
and that she needed a hysterectomy right away. She chose to have her
ovaries removed instead. When Ingram-Allen awoke in recovery, she
discovered Perwaiz had inflicted a total abdominal hysterectomy. He
also perforated her bladder. Ingram-Allen was rushed back to the
hospital with blue skin, three days later. She'd developed a bad infection
and was hospitalized for six days. She later obtained her medical files;
they didn't even mention precancerous cells.
Patient Angela Lee suffered from complications after a
hysterectomy led to heavy bleeding. She was placed in an induced
coma for days. Another patient says she can no longer use the
bathroom normally after an unneeded hysterectomy.
Perwaiz induced early labor in at least 33 pregnant women without
a valid medical reason. Rushing their childbirths let Perwaiz
deliver the babies on days he worked at the hospital - and thus
would be paid by insurers.
Perwaiz was sentenced to 59 years in federal prison.
WINTER 2021 | SIU TODAY 17
https://insurancefraud.org/
SIU Today Winter 2021

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