MetLife Subsidiary Wins $2.9 Million In Massachusetts Auto Fraud Case.A federal court in Massachusetts awarded $2.9 million to a MetLife Inc. subsidiary in a civil lawsuit alleging automobile insurance fraud. MetLife Auto & Home claimed in the lawsuit that five auto-body repair shops, 25 people and a former MetLife appraiser A person selected or appointed by a competent authority or an interested party to evaluate the financial worth of property. Appraisers are frequently appointed in probate and condemnation proceedings and are also used by banks and real estate concerns to determine the market conspired to inflate inflate - deflate auto-repair appraisals or write appraisals for nonexistent non·ex·is·tence n. 1. The condition of not existing. 2. Something that does not exist. non damage. Judge Douglas P. Woodlock of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts entered the judgment, based on jury verdicts, against three defendants--all associated with L&L Collisions. Court documents didn't give a location for L&L Collisions but identified some of the individual defendants as doing business as L&L Collisions. Michael Lentz, Andrea Lentz and John Lentz were found liable for violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, breach of contract, common-law fraud and conspiracy to defraud To make a Misrepresentation of an existing material fact, knowing it to be false or making it recklessly without regard to whether it is true or false, intending for someone to rely on the misrepresentation and under circumstances in which such person does rely on it to his or the insurer. Four other auto-body repair shops named in the lawsuit either settled with MetLife or defaulted before the trial, MetLife said in a statement. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. court documents, the fraud ring operated in several towns in eastern Massachusetts. The exact locations of the body shops weren't indicated in the documents. The former MetLife appraiser, identified as Bryan Cook, was "at the heart of the case," Woodlock said, because Cook "undertook to structure a series of fraudulent The description of a willful act commenced with the Specific Intent to deceive or cheat, in order to cause some financial detriment to another and to engender personal financial gain. ...claims submitted...through various auto body shops." |
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