Hurricane Sandy insurance scam has broken into the public’s eye. Many insurance claims that were submitted had fraudulent engineering reports and the insurance companies either denied or greatly lowered the amount that was paid out. It was first discovered in New York, but it seems that it happened here in New Jersey.
United States Senators Robert Menendez and Cory Booker of New Jersey on March 2nd have called for congressional hearings into allegations of fraud done by insurance companies in paying out damage claims to Hurricane Sandy victims. They were joined by United States Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, all of them asked the Senate Banking Committee to look into reports that engineering surveys were rewritten to blame damage from Hurricane Sandy on other factors. Which resulted in allowing the insurers to avoid reimbursing victims of the hurricane for the full amount of their actual losses.
They wrote in the letter to Committee Chairman Richard Shelby a Republican from Alabama and ranking minority member Sherrod Brown Democrat of Ohio that “We believe that Congress, in its oversight capacity, has responsibility to hold further hearings so that these questions can be fully addressed in an open and transparent manner,” Both Menendez and Schumer are members of the committee, whose jurisdiction also covers housing issues.
Congressman Tom MacArthur, a Republican from the 3rd District, which includes part of the Jersey Shore said, “Survivors of Superstorm Sandy deserve to know when FEMA first learned of these corrupt practices, why nothing was done to stop them, and what FEMA’s direct or indirect role was in carrying them out.” Further he called for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate to step down for his part in not preventing this fraud from happening.
This all came to light in November of last year when a federal judge determined that an engineering report had been rewritten in favor of the insurance company in a case brought by a Long Island New York couple. At that time both of our senators called for an investigation of New Jersey insurance claims also.
And the Director of FEMA, Fugate, ordered insurance companies that evaluated the damage for FEMA to release the engineering reports they used to make their insurance conclusions. FEMA also got together with the senators’ staffs and insurers to develop a solution to the current practice of firms being penalized for overpayments to victims, but not for underpayments.
Now that this practice has come to light it has become very clear that some and maybe a very large share of the insurance claims from Hurricane Sandy were manipulated with the design of defrauding the insured by the insurance companies. This has me thinking what has happened to business ethics? Has greed so overshadowed the executives and personnel of these insurance companies to warp their thinking on what is ethical and/or legal? What else have these companies done that has caused denial of claims? Only time and the through investigation by Federal, State and Local authorities will tell us what they have been doing.
I am personally appalled that this has happened and do very fervently hope that those who were defrauded will be able to have their claims reviewed and settled fairly. Do go email our Senators with the problem(s) with your insurance claims, so that they may be able to help you.
That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike
