New Jersey Fraud Watchdog Ronald Chillemi Joins New York Office of Robins Kaplan

Business Wire

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Robins Kaplan LLP announced today that Ronald Chillemi, a former federal prosecutor who most recently served as Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor in New Jersey, will join the firm as a partner in the New York office effective tomorrow, December 10.

“Ron is a proven trial lawyer whose great depth of experience in the overlapping areas of healthcare, insurance fraud, and white-collar prosecution will greatly benefit our clients,” said Martin Lueck, chairman of Robins Kaplan’s executive board. “With his impressive track record combatting fraud in the regulated industries of healthcare, insurance, and financial services, Ron adds a new dimension to our firm.”

As head of the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor for nearly five years, Chillemi supervised a staff of 125 attorneys, detectives, and analysts. Due to reforms he implemented, the Office secured two record annual aggregate recoveries in False Claims Act matters and introduced efficiencies that reduced divisional costs by more than $2 million. A portion of those savings were used to institute an annual statewide, multi-media advertising campaign that produced new referrals that the Office has successfully prosecuted.

Chillemi led many successful anti-kickback investigations and prosecutions in the healthcare field, including Operation RayScam, which uncovered a 27-person kickback and money laundering operation within a network of diagnostic imaging centers; the successful prosecution of a 12-person kickback and racketeering case in State v. Anhuar Bandy et al.; and State v. Elhan Gurban et al., which resulted in five guilty pleas related to billing for healthcare services not rendered.

His anti-fraud efforts spanned many other areas, including, for instance, the breakup of a large multi-state auto insurance rate-evasion scheme, and personally handling the prosecution of a CEO of a 400-employee company for falsifying information to his insurance carriers in order to avoid insurance premiums. The CEO received a prison sentence for insurance fraud.

Upon Chillemi’s departure from his position as Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said, “Ron has been a dedicated public servant of the highest quality, whose relentless efforts to combat fraud have been enormously effective. The State of New Jersey benefitted greatly from his talents as a prosecutor and thanks him deeply for his service.”

Ron will represent clients in a range of healthcare-related matters, including mass tort actions; represent both insurers and policyholders in insurance-fraud matters; and represent corporate and executive clients in connection with regulatory compliance, government investigations, internal investigations, and white-collar defense.

Before serving as New Jersey’s Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor, Ron served for nine years as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey. In that office, he won the Prosecutor of the Year Award and the Director’s Award for Superior Performance. Over the course of his career, Ron has tried a total of 19 jury trials, winning 16 guilty verdicts.

Ron is a graduate of Cornell Law School, the London School of Economics, and the University of Pennsylvania.

About Robins Kaplan

Robins Kaplan LLP is among the nation’s premier trial law firms, with more than 220 lawyers located in Atlanta; Bismarck, N.D.; Boston; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; Mountain View, Calif.; New York; Naples, Fla.; and Sioux Falls, S.D. The firm litigates, mediates, and arbitrates high-stakes, complex disputes, repeatedly earning national recognition. Firm clients include—as both plaintiffs and defendants—numerous Fortune 500 corporations, emerging-markets companies, entrepreneurs, and individuals.