Fraud Prosecutions

State Farm agreed to pay $250 million on the brink of a trial to customers who claimed the company tried to rig the Illinois justice system to wipe out a $1 billion jury verdict from 19 years ago.

A Long Island engineering company and one of its former executives pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges that they had deliberately falsified engineering reports of homes battered by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. (Via New York Times)

The New York attorney general’s office executed a search warrant Wednesday at a Long Island engineering firm that has been accused in civil lawsuits of submitting bogus inspection reports on homes damaged by Superstorm Sandy. (Via ABC News)

On Feb. 18, 2014, officers from state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman’s office raided the Uniondale offices of HiRise Engineering P.C., responding to allegations of fraud involving flood insurance reports prepared after Hurricane Sandy. On Monday, Schneiderman’s office unsealed a 50-count indictment charging Matthew Pappalardo, 38, of Whitestone, Queens, and HiRise with altering engineering reports that assessed the structural damage of residential properties resulting from the storm. (Via LIHerald.com)

A local engineering firm is accused of cheating Superstorm Sandy victims out of insurance money. Matthew Pappalardo did not talk to reporters as he left the Nassau County Criminal Courthouse in Mineola, Long Island, Monday. He pleaded not guilty to fraud, forgery, and practicing engineering without a license. (Via FOX 5)