Lawbreakers Sentenced in $6.2 Million Fraud Scheme

A Manhattan man and a co-defendant have been sentenced for their roles in a five-year long insurance fraud scheme.

Aron Goldman has been sentenced to 2 ½ to 7 ½ years in prison and fined $800,000, while a co-defendant, Matthew Keschner, has been sentenced to 1 ½ to 4 ½ years in prison and fined $750,000. It is said that over a five-year period, numerous defendants, along with Goldman and Keschner, volunteered in a massive no-fault insurance fraud scheme through a criminal enterprise known as the St. Nicholas Group. The defendants that were charged with enterprise corruption in the original indictment are now being sued in asset forfeiture for $6,270,980.87, the amount of money that was stolen.

On Dec. 13, 2010, following a three month trial, a jury in New York State Supreme Court convicted Goldman and Keschner of multiple felonies including enterprise corruption, grand larceny, money laundering, scheme to defraud, insurance fraud, and falsifying business records.

As stated in The North Country Gazette, it was proven at that trial that both defendants were associated with the St. Nicholas Group, a no-fault insurance clinic located in Manhattan.  The enterprise would use runners to obtain patients, and would then sometimes use those patients to stage phony motor vehicle accidents and bring potentially injured parties to the facility.  Services at the facility would then be provided by medical doctors, like Goldman, and other health care professionals, such as Keschner, a chiropractor. 

Prosecutors stated that, on a daily basis, Goldman, Keschner and numerous other contributors would then prescribe unneeded chiropractic, acupuncture, physical therapy and neurological treatments, procedures, and equipment. They would also falsify medical records and other documents, and then submit the false claims to insurance companies; and in some cases, these billed services would only be provided half way or not at all. It also didn’t seem to matter if a patient came in with injuries sustained from a staged accident or a legitimate one; either way they would sometimes bill insurers for treatment or equipment that was either unnecessary or that never actually took place. 

Over the course of the scam, the enterprise stole from several insurance companies, including GEICO and Allstate, and from the car-rental company Enterprise, which was self-insured. Goldman, Keschner and the others would also use their professional bank accounts and corporations to launder the proceeds from the scheme.

The owner of the St. Nicholas Group was co-defendant Gregory Vinarsky, 64.  On Dec. 23, 2009, Vinarsky pleaded guilty to enterprise corruption, scheme to defraud in the first degree, first degree grand larceny, first degree money laundering and assorted tax offenses.

Vinarsky is currently awaiting sentencing after testifying at Goldman and Keschner’s trial. Because he was not a licensed physician or chiropractor however, Vinarsky was forbidden under state law from owning or controlling a health care corporation. Therefore, Goldman, Keschner and other medical professionals all made fraudulent claims stating that they owned and operated their own businesses in order to conceal Vinarsky’s unlawful ownership of the St. Nicholas Group.

To date, 16 convictions of defendants have resulted from the investigation.  Eight other defendants have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.