Category: Regulation

Rampant Fraud in Staged Accidents

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.rstreet.org/commentary/rampant-fraud-in-staged-accidents/

Excerpt:

Whereas the plot of The Fortune Cookie may sound implausible, the reality is that insurance fraud is rampant. Fake and inflated claims are responsible for over $300 billion in claims leakage annually. Staged accidents are among the most grisly types of insurance fraud. Here, organized criminal rings comprising complicit attorneys, medical providers, and actors fake serious road injuries to extract inflated medical reimbursements and proceeds from insurers in civil litigation. Some such schemes have generated tens of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains.

One recent example is so macabre that it should be made into a movie. Cornelius Garrison was a member of a Louisiana criminal gang actively perpetrating phony injuries in staged accidents. Garrison was a “slammer” in staged automobile “accidents”—a driver who intentionally crashes into other vehicles (preferably 18-wheelers) in order to fraudulently collect insurance settlements. Some have estimated that Garrison participated in close to 100 staged accident scams. But after fellow gang members learned Garrison had turned witness for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), his life was in danger. Co-conspirators offered to pay him to move to the Bahamas to escape retribution; however, Garrison chose to stay home, where he was murdered in a 10-bullet fusillade.

Staged accident fraud is a growing profit center for criminals. In R Street’s 2023 expert witness testimony to Congress on the seamy side of third-party litigation funding, we cited New York’s $31 million staged accident fraud ring, orchestrated by litigation funder Adrian Alexander. The largest scheme known at the time, it ensnared complicit attorneys and corrupt medical providers known as “medical mills,” engaging in artificial medical bill inflation and upcoding (the submission of claims containing codes for expensive medical services never rendered). Since then, another massive staged accident ring twice the size of Alexander’s has come to light: a $60 million racket that allegedly bribed 911 emergency line operators to direct callers to medical providers controlled by Bradley Pierre, the mastermind behind it.

Author(s): Jerry Theodorou

Publication Date: 16 Sept 2025

Publication Site: R Street

BlackRock calls out state officials for ‘politicization’ of public pensions

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.esgdive.com/news/blackrock-responds-to-republican-democrat-state-finance-officials-politicization-public-pensions/759147/

Excerpt:

  • BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, said letters sent to the firm by 26 Republican state finance officials in July and 17 Democrat state finance officials in August “continue a concerning trend by both parties of politicizing the management of public pension funds.” 
  • “Many of our clients value having BlackRock act as an engaged shareholder on their behalf,” S. Jane Moffat, BlackRock’s managing director of U.S. government affairs and public policy, told the finance officials in an Aug. 27 response letter. “At the same time, BlackRock is not an activist investor.”
  • BlackRock’s response comes after the state officials painted drastically different views of what they viewed as “fiduciary duty” in their letters. The coalition of Republican state officials urged the asset manager and other financial institutions to stop framing climate change as a long-term risk, while the coalition of Democrat officials looked to push BlackRock and others to reaffirm their commitment to managing climate change and other similar long-term risks.

Author(s): Lamar Johnson

Publication Date: 3 Sept 2025

Publication Site: ESG Dive

Dutch fund PFZW reduces BlackRock ties over clash on sustainability

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/dutch-fund-pfzw-reduces-blackrock-ties-over-clash-sustainability-2025-09-03/

Excerpt:

Dutch pension fund PFZW has stopped investing in stock funds managed by BlackRock (BLK.N), opens new tab, in part because of concerns over the U.S. firm’s voting record on sustainability issues, its lead asset manager PGGM said on Wednesday.

The move comes amid a wider activist campaign in the Netherlands to push the country’s large pension schemes to drop managers that have reduced support for climate change-linked resolutions at company meetings.

While some companies have scaled back the importance they attach to sustainability since the re-election of U.S. President Donald Trump, many of the biggest Dutch pension funds still consider it the best long-term approach.

….

In June, U.S. asset owner the Sierra Club Foundation said it would move $10.5 million in assets because BlackRock had not pressed portfolio companies enough on climate.

In response to the PFZW move, a BlackRock spokesperson said: “BlackRock clients – including our Dutch clients – continue to invest through BlackRock to meet their sustainable investing goals, entrusting us to manage over $1 trillion in sustainable and transition assets on their behalf.”

Author(s): Bart H. Meijer and Simon Jessop

Publication Date: 3 Sept 2025

Publication Site: Reuters