NYC Indictment Aims at $9M NYSIF Fraud

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg last week announced the indictment of the Schnellback-Sendon Group for using fictitious shell companies to steal more than $9 million in unpaid workers’ compensation premiums from the New York State Insurance Fund (NYSIF) by failing to report at least $40 million in cash payroll for more than 100 employees from 2017 to 2024.
The company SSG is a New Jersey-based construction company that performs large-scale facade work in the New York City area.
From 2017 to 2024, the SSG defendants allegedly used fictitious shell companies to generate $40 million in unreported cash payroll for over 100 employees.
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The Washington Supreme Court has overturned its own precedent, stripping an employer of Workers’ Compensation Immunity for asbestos claims by expanding the Deliberate Injury exception.
The court held that mere “virtual certainty” that an injury could result, as opposed to the statutorily required “deliberate intention … to produce injury,” was sufficient to strip immunity in asbestos-related cancer cases.
According to Rachel Tallon Reynolds of Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, this ruling will likely result in a dramatic increase in liability for employers in Washington State whose employees may have been exposed to asbestos.
She said the court opinion also leaves open the potential for expanded liability for other, non-asbestos-related, long latency claims.
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AM Best said that workers’s compensation made up 4% of reported Managing General Agent (MGA) premiums last year, as those agencies’ overall premiums grew by 14.5% to about $90 billion.
Specialization has emerged as a dominant trend, with approximately 55% of MGA premiums coming from firms focusing on specific lines of business or risk classes.
“The premium momentum by MGAs writing specialty commercial lines of coverage shows no sign of slowing down despite average account pricing moderating or even declining in certain lines such as workers’ compensation, professional liability — particularly directors and officers and employment practices liability — and cyber liability,” said David Blades, associate director, Industry Research and Analytics, AM Best.
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