RICO case alleges sham lawsuits by N.Y. firm; Photos of clients include soccer, bowling

Personal injury lawyers have been hit with at least a third racketeering lawsuit by an insurer that alleges they conspired with doctors and lenders to turn sham lawsuits into high-dollar drama at the expense of their clients’ futures.

Greater New York Mutual Insurance Company sued Liakas Law, Jumpstart Funding and several health care practices last week in New York federal court. Liakas was sued twice last year in federal court over many of the same allegations by Roosevelt Road Re and Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company.

It’s part of a wave of RICO Act lawsuits brought against lawyers in the city. The alleged scheme, as outlined in a Legal Newsline series, involves vulnerable clients like undocumented immigrants whose attorneys arrange high-interest loans and unnecessary medical procedures for them.

Medical care drives up the cost of the claim, but doctors and lenders need to be repaid – and lawyers take their contingency fee too. The plaintiff might end up with around 25% of his or her settlement.

Firms facing these include Subin Associates and William Schwitzer & Associates. Liakas Law is notable, as Ali Najmi is special counsel there. New mayor Zohran Mamdani has selected Najmi to head a committee that picks judges.

GNY Insurance’s complaint includes several cases it says show a pattern of racketeering. One plaintiff, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, alleged a trip over a sidewalk, as his sister also had in the past.

He did not go to the hospital but was instead instructed by a “runner” to head to Liakas Law, the suit says. Doctors were arranged, though a photo from social media shows the man seemingly fine at what appears to be a bar, the suit says.

Eleven people responsible for 12 injury lawsuits are in the photo, GNY Insurance says.

“And is it a photograph of yourself with friends at a bar,” the man was asked in a deposition.

“Yes. We were celebrating a soccer tournament we won.”

Doctors named as defendants performed right shoulder surgery. Findings claimed on the operative report were incompatible with imaging studies, the suit says, finding new and more serious injuries.

Then came a back surgery in 2021. GNY Insurance calls it “an entirely unwarranted and unnecessary surgical spinal fusion… in a 35-year-old patient with at best degenerative conditions…”

At trial, the plaintiff said he was unable to put on his underwear without assistance, but jurors ruled for the defendant in October 2025. One month later, a photo emerged of him in uniform with his soccer team.

Daniel Johnston and others at The Willis Law Group represent GNY Insurance. Their suit includes other photos, like an allegedly-injured woman bowling and dancing.

Liakas Law has moved to dismiss the lawsuit filed against it by Roosevelt Road. It argues Roosevelt Road and its co-plaintiffs were never the targets of any lawsuits and failed to allege they were financially harmed, a claim that was successful in Roosevelt’s case against Subin.

“That an insurer disagrees with the cause or extent, or even the existence, of an injury, or debates the necessity of medical treatment does not transmogrify an attorney’s prosecution of a tort claim into far-reaching fraud,” Liakas’ lawyers wrote in August.

“Rather, it summarizes the posture of virtually every personal injury case in New York State. Plaintiffs cannot manufacture a RICO conspiracy based in fraud by simply labeling standard tort practice as ‘fraudulent,’ even when they choose to do so, as here, over 500 times.”