April 22, 11

NEWS / Maryland Man Pleads Guilty to Insurance Fraud

ALEXANDRIA, VA—Kenneth Williams, 44, of Silver Spring, Md., pled guilty today to conspiring to commit wire fraud for his role in an insurance fraud scheme.

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office, made the announcement after the plea was accepted by United States District Judge T.S. Ellis III.

Williams faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison when he is sentenced on July 15, 2011.

According to a statement of facts filed with his plea agreement, Williams worked for more than 20 years in the metropolitan D.C. area as a “runner,” which is street vernacular for a person who, in return for payment, solicits and recruits auto accident victims on behalf of law firms and medical providers. Williams obtained the names and phone numbers of accident victims both by collecting accident reports from various police stations in the area and through connections he had at local area hospitals. Often the accident victims whom Williams solicited had not been injured in the accidents. Williams coached those individuals to fake or exaggerate injuries for purposes of generated inflated and fraudulent insurance claims. Williams received compensation from the attorneys and chiropractors to whom he referred the accident victims.

Williams also admitted to arranging staged automobile accidents, during which participants claimed they had been injured in fake accidents and submitted false insurance claims to recover for supposed injuries they sustained during those accidents.

The victim insurance companies who were billed for these fraudulent claims suffered losses of between $400,000 and $1 million as a result of Williams’ conduct.

This case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office. Assistant United States Attorney Marla Tusk and Special Assistant United States Attorney Alexander Berlin are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.uspci.uscourts.gov.

http://washingtondc.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel11/wfo042111a.htm

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