Texas legislation agency slapped with $10m judgment over hurricane fraud

A Texas legislation agency accused of fraudulent acts associated to hurricane claims has been hit with a default judgment of greater than $10 million, together with curiosity.

The legislation agency – McClenny, Moseley & Associates (MMA) – had been sued by PCG Claims (doing enterprise as PCG Consulting), a agency that investigates and manages large-loss insurance coverage claims. A district courtroom in Harris County, Texas, awarded PCG a default judgment when MMA didn’t file a response to the lawsuit.

The judgment contains PCG’s requested damages of $9.795,003.46, plus attorneys’ charges of $24.956.21 by judgment and $3,000 for post-judgment assortment, in keeping with a LinkedIn put up by Matthew Monson, founder and supervisor of The Monson Regulation Agency. That quantity can also be topic to eight.5% curiosity, in keeping with the ruling by Choose Cheryl Elliot Thornton.

“Take out your calculators for this one – 8.5% curiosity from the date the Petition was filed beneath the day earlier than this judgment plus post-judgment curiosity of 8.5% from the date the Judgment is signed till it’s paid,” Monson wrote within the put up. “So curiosity has been accruing at $2,287.54 per day for 152 days up to now for whole amassed curiosity because the go well with was filed of $347,705.86. Thus the present worth of the judgment is $10,170,665.53.”

The judgment is the newest chapter within the ongoing saga of MMA’s alleged misdeeds. In Could of final yr, then-Louisiana Insurance coverage Commissioner Jim Donelon fined the legislation agency and related companions $2 million for hurricane-related insurance coverage fraud involving greater than 850 Louisiana householders and policyholders.

MMA admitted that it falsely claimed to have been retained by no less than 856 Louisiana policyholders to settle claims, when it didn’t, in actual fact, characterize these folks. The legislation agency’s fraudulent habits included presenting fee calls for, invoking coverage appraisal provisions, and receiving and negotiating settlement checks with out the authorization of the policyholders, in keeping with the Louisiana Division of Insurance coverage (LDI).

The intent of the fraud was to divert insurance coverage declare proceeds to the legislation agency and gather “predatory skilled service charges” to which the agency was not entitled, the LDI stated.

“The dimensions and scope of McClenny, Mosely & Associates’ unlawful insurance coverage scheme is like nothing I’ve seen earlier than,” Donelon stated after the LDI issued a cease-and-desist order towards MMA in February of final yr. “It’s uncommon for the division to challenge regulatory actions towards entities we don’t regulate, however on this case, the order is important to guard policyholders from the agency’s fraudulent insurance coverage exercise.”

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