A former standout tight end for the Ole Miss Rebels, who briefly played in the NFL, faces more than 20 years in prison after he was convicted of defrauding Medicare and a veterans insurance program of $194 million. Joel Rufus French, 47, of Amory, Mississippi, worked with overseas call centers and durable medical equipment firms that he secretly held ownership in to push orthotic braces for elderly people that didn’t need them, prosecutors and court records indicated. “This defendant’s conduct was egregious: He targeted seniors suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia and billed Medicare for orthotic braces for deceased patients and…
Author: Awais
An Ohio couple have been sentenced for devising a scheme to collect more than $2 million dollars in insurance money by conspiring to set insured houses on fire, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Ohio announced this week. Lonnie White, 48, from Willoughby Hills, Ohio, was sentenced to 53 months in prison by Chief U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi after pleading guilty in August to the following charges as outlined in the indictment: Conspiracy to Commit Mail and Wire Fraud Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering Offenses Conspiracy to use Fire in Commission of a Felony He was also sentenced…
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he doesn’t see the state having the appetite to take over PG&E Corp., which has come under criticism recently for blackouts that hit San Francisco. “I’m not convinced” the state wants to get into the utility business, Newsom said during an event in San Francisco hosted by Bloomberg News. Related: Edison Sues LA County Over Fire Deaths for Delayed Alerts Newsom previously weighed a possible takeover of PG&E during negotiations over the company’s restructuring after it filed for bankruptcy in 2019 due to billions of dollars of wildfire liability claims. More recently, some elected officials…
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Arthur J. Gallagher Acquires Germany’s Reck & Co. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., the Rolling Meadows, Illinois-based insurance brokerage, announced its claims and risk management solutions subsidiary, Gallagher Bassett, has acquired Bremen, Germany-based Reck & Co GmbH. Terms of the transaction, which was announced on Feb. 2, were not disclosed. Reck & Co. is a specialist provider of global transport and marine claims services including surveying, claim handling, recovery and loss prevention. The Reck & Co. team, led by Franz Kasten and Marc Friedrich, will remain in their current location under the direction of Manan Sagar, head of Gallagher Bassett’s…
Hotel Equities Group, a hotel management company, violated federal law when it failed to provide pregnancy accommodations to one employee and religious accommodations to another at an Illinois property, he U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, in 2023, a pregnant front desk clerk at the company’s Hilton-branded hotel in Oak Lawn, Illinois requested the ability to sit at the front desk rather than stand due to medical needs related to her pregnancy. Although a coworker initially provided her with a suitable chair, company management later took it away, replaced it with…
Chris Womack is one of a dwindling number of Texas ranchers who can remember fighting the New World screwworm, a once-vanquished pest threatening to make an unwanted encore in the US after its recent return to northern Mexico. “You never forget the smell,” Womack, 60, said of his first encounter with a calf being devoured by screwworm maggots. It was one of many he and his father would treat in the early 1970s as an outbreak of the parasite — which can kill cattle in less than two weeks — devastated Texas ranchers. More than 50 years later, Womack and…
There are a host of innovations making the market more effective than ever
Last month’s sprawling winter storm from Texas to New England was one of the first multi-grid tests in the US for big batteries. They passed. Texas in particular benefited from energy storage, which helped cushion the state’s grid during the storm. Texas has nearly 17 gigawatts of installed battery capacity now, up from less than 0.5 gigawatts in 2021, according to data from Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state grid operator, and Wood Mackenzie. The state is expected to hit 25 gigawatts in 2029, per an annual assessment released last month by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. “The…
The New Hampshire Insurance Department (NHID) reported that for calendar year 2025 it collected $185.62 million for the state’s General Fund and recovered $3.34 million for consumers. Insurance Commissioner DJ Bettencourt said the numbers show the department is “delivering real value for taxpayers while holding the insurance market to the highest standards of accountability and compliance.” Some highlights from 2025 reported by NHID include: The $185.62 million for the General Fund included $159.02 million from premium taxes and $26.60 million from fees and fines. The Consumer Services Unit handled a total of 6,536 cases, excluding external health reviews, and responded…
Argenta Private Capital Limited (APCL) and Helios Underwriting PLC have launched a 2026 round of Starter Homes investment vehicles, which provide a capital-efficient pathway for investors to access returns within the Lloyd’s insurance and reinsurance market.This marks the third collaboration between APCL, an FCA-regulated adviser to Lloyd’s investors, and listed firm Helios, following successful rounds in 2024 and 2025. The 2026 iteration builds on this momentum with a range of vehicles specifically designed to meet evolving investor demand. By eliminating the need to own underlying capacity, the firm’s explained that the Starter Homes provide a more accessible entry point to…
Great American Insurance Group has selected AI travel insurance platform Faye to enter the travel insurance marketplace. This marks Great American’s first expansion into travel insurance. The companies said that with limited modernization and customer frustration surrounding claims experiences, the category presents a significant opportunity for carriers and managing general agents to transform how travelers are protected. “Following the pandemic, we recognized a need for an insurance carrier that supports travel MGAs and brokers rather than competing with them,” said Chris Banocy, divisional senior vice president of Great American Embedded Solutions. “Faye’s modern approach and rapid growth made them a…
A California appeals court on Monday overturned a sex abuse conviction against a former University of California, Los Angeles, gynecologist and ordered the case to be retried. A three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled Dr. James Heaps was denied a fair trial because the judge did not share with his defense counsel a note by the court’s foreman pointing out concerns that one juror lacked sufficient English to carry out their duties. Related: UCLA to Pay Nearly $700M in Doctor Abuse Lawsuits Heaps’ attorney, Leonard Levine, said he and his team were not aware of the…
Fourth-quarter 2025 net income at The Hanover Insurance Group was $198.5 million, up about 18% over $167.9 million recorded for the same period in 2024. The Worcester, Massachusetts-based insurer’s Q4 combined ratio remained relatively flat at 89.0 versus 89.2 the prior year. Catastrophe losses during Q4 were $27 million, almost all attributable to commercial lines business where catastrophe losses during Q4 were $26.9 million compared with $8.4 million for Q4 2024. The personal lines business logged catastrophe losses of $9.3 million compared with $13.6 million. In specialty lines, The Hanover reported a benefit of $1.2 million versus a loss of…