Few cases investigated and very few make it to court in Georgia, audit indicates

February 06, 2008

By James Salzar (View author info)

A special state insurance fraud program with a $3 million budget investigates few cases and often lets the four-year statute of limitations run out on cases before any action is taken, according to a new state audit.The decade-old program referred only 17 insurance fraud cases for criminal prosecution in fiscal 2006, the year that the auditors reviewed the unit. More than $1 million was spent investigating financial statements of insurance companies for fraud, but auditors said the division was directly involved in investigating just one case of fraudulent financial reporting during that year. The 1995 law that created the anti-fraud program stated that "proper investigation of fraudulent insurance acts, followed by vigorous prosecution of insurance fraud," would result in lower insurance premiums, according to the audit. The unit became operational in 1998, when one report estimated insurance fraud totaled $80 billion nationwide.

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