New Jersey’s IFPA Helps Victims of Fraud Sue the Fraudsters

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Aetna Health Inc. and Aetna Life Insurance Co. (collectively, “Aetna”) appeal from trial court orders dismissing for failure to state a claim their second amended complaint, and denying as untimely their motion for leave to file a third amended complaint, against father-daughter defendants Robert W. Kerekes (“Kerekes”) and Susan Nicoll (“Nicoll”). The two were minority owners of Biodiagnostic Laboratory Systems, LLC, (“BLS”) which submitted millions of dollars of fraudulent claims to Aetna. David Nicoll (“David”) – Nicoll’s husband and Kerekes’s son-in-law – was BLS’s majority owner and was convicted of various federal crimes related to the fraud, along with other Nicoll and Kerekes family members and numerous physicians who participated in the scheme.

Although Nicoll and Kerekes were dismissed from the case, Aetna took their depositions as part of discovery in the case remaining against other defendants. Five months later, Aetna sought leave to file a third amended complaint that repeated IFPA and UFTA claims against Nicoll and Kerekes and added claims for a constructive trust, piercing the corporate veil, and restitution against the two.

ANALYSIS

The IFPA “aggressively” combats insurance fraud in part by authorizing insurers to pursue private claims for statutory violations. Here, Aetna adequately alleged that Nicoll and Kerekes committed two statutory violations.

Aetna was not obliged to allege more. Knowledge is a state of mind that is rarely proved by direct evidence. Knowing is well understood to be an awareness or knowledge of the illegality of one’s act.

ZALMA OPINION

Since prosecutors seem reluctant to prosecute people who commit insurance fraud and seek restitution for the victims, the insurers, Aetna and other insurers are becoming proactive and seeking to take the profit out of the crime. The defendants made millions by their fraud and Aetna, if it can prove what it alleged will recover the millions stolen from it by insurance fraud, even if the defendants are imprisoned for their crime. It is time for insurers to fight back in a way that will hurt the fraudsters the most – in their bank accounts. New Jersey is only one of many states that have an IFPA that allows insurers to sue or sue under Qui Tam suits. Aetna’s actions should be emulated by all insurer victims.

© 2021 – Barry Zalma