Three Chiropractors Found Guilty of Federal Fraud Charges

Three Florida chiropractors involved in a plan to fraudulently obtain money from insurance agencies have been found guilty on federal money laundering and mail fraud charges.

The chiropractors—Hermann Diehl of Miami, Kenneth Karow of West Palm Beach, and Hal Mark Kreitman of Miami Beach—helped set up staged automobile accidents and then filed fake claims for “victims” of the crashes. They also billed insurance agencies for procedures that were not actually performed.

The verdict was rendered on April 22 by a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. A fourth defendant, Joel Antonio Simon Ramirez of West Palm Beach, was found guilty of helping to stage the accidents.

All four of the defendants were found guilty of money laundering and mail fraud, with sentencing set for July. They each face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Readers of FLPIPGuide.com may recall that we wrote about Dr. Karow in a May 17, 2013 post titled, “92 Accused in Staged Accident Fraud Ring, $20 million in Fraudulent Claims.” At that time, an Operation Sledgehammer investigation revealed that chiropractors Lazaro Rodriguez, then 58, of Doral, and Kenneth Karow, then 53, were recruited to serve as owners of clinics involved in the ring.