List of the worst insurance frauds

Insurers have always been faced with large-scale scams and fraudulent acts. The business itself is prone to this type of maneuver and some people do not hesitate to do whatever it takes to collect undue amounts of money.

The following are some of the famous fraud cases:

• In 2002, John Darwin faked his own death so that his wife Anne could pocket the death benefit of 680 000 GBP (837 495 USD). The fraud was discovered after the British couple, living in Panama, posted a message on social networks. In the end, each member of the couple was sentenced to six years in prison.
• In 2008, a South Carolina court sentenced Gerald Hardin to five years in prison for cutting off the hand of his mentally disabled friend to collect a 671 000 USD dismemberment insurance.
• In 2008, Atul Shah and Mahaveer Kankariya hatched a plan to rob their own jewelry business. The two New York partners subsequently filed a 7 million USD claim with their insurer Lloyd's of London. In 2011, the two men were found guilty of insurance fraud, attempted theft and falsifying business documents.
• In 2015, Ali Elmezayen drowned his two autistic sons to cash in on their life insurance policy worth 260 000 USD. In 2021, A. Elmezayen was sentenced to 212 years in prison.
• In 2017, Jacques Roy, a Texas physician, was sentenced to 35 years in prison and ordered to pay a 268 million USD fine. J. Roy defrauded Medicare to the tune of 375 million USD by making unnecessary medical visits and ordering medical procedures for healthy patients.
• In 2018, a 34-year-old Chinese man decided to fake his death by throwing his car into a river so that his wife could collect 988 767 CNY (146 835 USD) from the life insurance. He did not warn his wife who, under the shock, killed their two children before committing suicide. After this tragedy, the man went to the police to explain that he had debts after having paid for a treatment for his epileptic daughter.