True Crime of Insurance Fraud Video Number 70
- The Golden Taxi

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Mischa came to Houston in 1990 directly from the old Soviet Union. His dream was to be a cowboy. He became a cab driver.

Mischa picked up the English language quickly and memorized the convoluted streets of Houston. Within a year of his arrival, he could find with ease any hotel, restaurant or bar in the overgrown small town that was Houston, Texas.

Mischa made a reasonable living driving a cab, making the forty-five-minute run in from the airport at least three times a day. He bought a small three bedroom house outside Houston and was building his way toward the American dream. Mischa was not a criminal. He drove his cab twelve hours a day, six days a week to support himself and his young wife.

Mischa’s life changed when the dispatcher called him to the home of Sophie Mendelson. Sophie, an eighty-year-old Medicare patient, needed a ride to her doctor’s office, four miles from her home.
He grew up in the Soviet Union, so he had no respect for government. In fact, as a child and as an adult living in the Soviet Union, he learned that the only way to survive was to deceive the ever-present government.

The ride he gave Sophie Mendelson gave Mischa a plan to obtain a fortune. Mischa advised his dispatcher that he would volunteer to take all the Medicare, Medicaid, and welfare patient rides called into his cab.

Mischa sold his three bedroom house and bought a 500-acre ranch with a four thousand square foot, six bedroom ranch house and stables. He began to live his dream of being a cowboy.

Eventually his claims were audited. The auditor then found each receipt submitted by Mischa showed that he had driven the 1992 Chevrolet Caprice taxi cab a total of 1,250,000 miles.

The auditor concluded Mischa needed to drive more than 3,000 miles a day, sixteen hours a day, 365 days a year at more than 200 miles an hour to justify his claims.

The Texas Attorney General convicted Mischa of defrauding the State of Texas and Harris County Texas. The Judge ordered that he pay a fine of $50,000 and to serve ninety days in jail.

The United States government, although advised of the crime by Harris County officials, refused to prosecute since the fraud would seriously embarrass the Medicare system.

Everyone involved, especially Mischa, believed that justice had been served.

ZALMA OPINION

When a person is convicted of insurance fraud there is no deterrence shown if the only punishment is to allow the criminal to be placed on probation and allow him or her to keep the fruits of the crime.

(c) 2022 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.
Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE, is available at http://www.zalma.com and [email protected].

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