Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman and the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor (OIFP) announced today that an Essex County man has been arrested for allegedly running a scheme through the website Craigslist that offered services that would aid New Jersey residents in illegally registering their cars in other states to avoid paying market insurance premiums.
Shareem Taylor, 30, who had last known addresses in East Orange and Englewood, was arrested today in Englewood by OIFP detectives and charged with second-degree insurance fraud and second-degree conspiracy.
He is currently being housed at Bergen County Jail on $50,000 bail. Second-degree crimes can carry a state prison sentence of up to 10 years and a fine of $150,000. Taylor’s services would allegedly allow his customers to perpetrate reverse rate evasion. Legislation signed into law last week by Governor Chris Christie made reverse rate evasion a form of insurance fraud.
The measure targets residents who fraudulently obtain auto insurance in another state with lower rates, even though New Jersey is their principal residence or they principally keep the insured vehicle in New Jersey. The new law would consider the reverse rate evasion a form of insurance fraud that violates the New Jersey Insurance Fraud Prevention Act.
The bill also specifies that reverse rate evasion constitutes a violation of the New Jersey Insurance Fraud Prevention Act, with various civil penalties and remedies provided for in that act applying to violations. People who are concerned about insurance cheating and have information about a fraud can report it anonymously by calling the toll-free hotline at 1-877-55-FRAUD, or visiting the Web site at www.NJInsurancefraud.org.