Jennifer Adams, Moises Madrid, and nine other defendants were arrested after federal investigators accused them of carrying out an auto insurance scam, according to a recent press release by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Adams, 38, Madrid, 40, and the other defendants were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud apiece. The group is believed to have been booked into various South Florida federal prisons. It is not clear whether any of them has retained a private criminal defense lawyer.
The total list of defendants in the case includes four West Palm Beach residents (40-year-old Amaurys Hernandez, 41-year-old Maria Molina, 25-year-old Yuliet Tapanes, and 39-yearold Janice Velez) as well as two who formerly resided there (43-year-old Obelio Rodriguez ans 56-year-old Dagoberto Milian Lopez). The rest of the defendants are from Lake Worth (45-year-old Javier De La Caridad Troncoso and 42-year-old Ana Ovando), Greenacres, (49-year-old Gilda Garcia), Orlando (Madrid) and Boca Raton (Adams). The release states that Obello Rodriguez and Dagoberto Lopez are still at large. Madrid and Adams were both released on $50,000 bail bond, while Garcia, Tapanes, and Velez were released on $100,000 bond. If convicted, each defendant could face up to 20 years behind bars.
Adams is reportedly a licensed chiropractor, while Madrid is a licensed massage therapist. There is no reason to believe that either ever received complaints or encountered any sort of legal trouble before the current charges were brought forward. According to the release, Adams was named the owner of several chiropractic clinics in West Palm Beach, Palm Springs, and other South Florida locations. She allegedly conspired with the other defendants to stage car accidents, then fill out insurance claims for chiropractic services that were not needed or never happened.
Federal authorities reportedly believe that the scheme worked like this: the defendants found accomplices to stage car accidents in exchange for a share of the profits of the scheme. These defendants were allegedly taught how to stage the accidents as well as how to deal with authorities, including police officers and insurance officials. It is not clear who these alleged accomplices were or whether they have been apprehended.
Florida Law stipulates that accident victims are entitled to up to $10,000 of accident coverage from insurance companies, and authorities believe that the defendants took advantage of this. The defendants allegedly filed insurance claims for massage therapy and chiropractic treatments for the 'victims' of the car accidents. These treatments were either unnecessary or never occurred, according to the press release. These allegedly fraudulent insurance claims were then sent to insurance companies via U.S. Mail, making the charges federal.
It is not clear how federal detectives and insurance companies conducted the investigation into the alleged scheme, whether through reviewing records, undercover work, or an informant (or a combination of the three). This group of arrests is one of several to be completed for similar alleged schemes this year: the press release states that "in total, the U.S. Attorney's Office has charged 26 defendants in less than twelve months for their involvement in insurance fraud schemes."
