State Farm Sues Founder Of 1-800-ASK-GARY

July 29--TAMPA -- Insurance giant State Farm accuses the founder of the 1-800-ASK-GARY hotline and his chain of accident clinics of conducting a "massive fraud scheme" to obtain no-fault insurance benefits, according to a new federal lawsuit.

In a lengthy complaint filed Friday, the company alleges that Sarasota businessman Gary Kompothecras masterminded a scheme to "steer all unwitting callers to Kompothecras' own clinics, the Physicians Group clinics, and to PI (personal injury) attorneys who pay fees to ASK GARY to obtain client referrals and, at least in some instances, secretly agree to refer their clients to the Physicians Group clinics."

The complaint goes on to allege that Kompothecras created numerous shell companies with nominee owners to create the appearance that the 1-800-ASK-GARY hotline is an independent and legitimate medical and legal referral service.

Instead, the shell companies are all working at Kompothecras' direction, the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida alleges.

In fact, Kompothecras and his business entities "have never identified a single patient who was referred from the ASK GARY referral service to any health care provider other than Physicians Group," the complaint says.

Finally, the suit cites the testimony of a former attorney for the Winters & Yonker firm in Kentucky, who alleges that personal injury attorneys engaged in unlawful quid pro quo cross-referral arrangements. Attorneys in such arrangements were required to refer their own clients to Physicians Group clinics in return for legal referrals from 1-800-ASK-GARY's telephone operators.

In its defense, Physicians Group attorney Greg Zitani sent the Tribune a statement claiming State Farm levels a series of lies in its lawsuit. Among them, many callers to the 1-800-ASK-GARY hotline are not referred to Physicians Group's clinics, and attorneys who get referrals from the hotline are not required to refer any of their clients to the company's accident clinics, the attorney said.

"This suit is a desperate act by State Farm, one of the largest and most profitable insurance companies, who owes Physicians Group over $9 million by its failure to pay over 1,000 claims for medical costs incurred by its policy holders," the Physicians Group attorney writes.

State Farm will be exposed to claims for malicious prosecution by pursuing this absurd action to attempt to avoid paying the millions of dollars it owes to the defendants. This is not the first, or the last time an insurance company acts in bad faith exposing it to significant liability."

Stay tuned for additional updates.

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