Philadelphia Lawyer Committed Suicide As Insurance-Fraud Ring Was Uncovered
By Mensah M. Dean, Philadelphia Daily News | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
"This office will not give lawyers who commit white-collar crimes a free pass," Williams said at an afternoon news conference at his
Gaber, a sole practitioner who operated from an office on
The accused worked for Gaber as runners and clients. The runners, most of whom had once been clients, recruited new clients to stage slip-and-fall accidents to file false insurance claims, Williams said.
The runners would receive
Runners, who often doubled as accident witnesses, were trained to make sure that ambulances were called, that clients were treated at hospitals and that accidents were staged on sidewalks where defects were not too obvious, Williams said.
Gaber even hung a photo in his office featuring a ruler measuring the appropriate height of a pavement defect as an example of a good spot to fake a fall, Williams said.
In total, the runners brought in 43 fictitious claims, of which Gaber settled 24 for
Assistant District Attorney
She encouraged those still on the lam to turn themselves in at the nearest police station or to call the investigation's lead detective, Alfredo Quintile, at 215-686-8760.
She said the investigation was aided by the cooperation of insurance companies, the
Those neighbors, she said, "put together the matrix, put together the same motive, the same location -- slip-and-falls that sounded alike -- and they gathered together and they talked about it at community meetings."
Many of Gaber's clients were drug abusers and homeless, she said.
Gaber didn't want any fall locations at unoccupied properties. Instead, he liked city and
Gaber also didn't want to accept cases in which
On
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