A 63 year old body shop owner from Philadelphia has been accused of hundreds of scam charges.
A man from Philadelphia is now facing hundreds of charges relating to his auto insurance fraud activities, in which he used deer carcasses, fur, and blood to make it appear as though the vehicles had struck the animals on the road.
The participants in the scam would then file inflated claims so that insurers would pay for the “repairs”.
According to investigators, the accused, Ronald Galati Sr. had a rather clear motto, which was that “I live my life to cheat insurance companies — my high everyday is to cheat insurance companies.” Should this and the allegations against Galati be accurate, it will mean that he did manage to live up to his declaration – at least for some time. He is now being accused of operating an auto insurance fraud scheme worth an estimated $5 million from his body shop which is located in south Philadelphia.
He stored the dead deer at his business to use them for fake auto insurance claims.
The carcasses, fur, and blood were used to make it look as though the animals had been struck in an accident that caused the damage to the vehicles. A claim would then be made for far more than would have been required for any actual damage to the vehicles, and Galati and his wide range of co-conspirators were able to rake in a considerable illegal income.
At the same time, a corrupt bureaucrat helped Galati and those involved in the scheme to be able to grab hold of a sweet contract for repairing municipal vehicles, according to the presentment to the grand jury that laid out the case.
So far, there have been forty one people who have been charged for their roles in this auto insurance scam. This includes members of Galati’s family such as his daughter, son, and wife, as well as a city official, a Philadelphia police officer, and two employees of insurance companies. The Philadelphia District Attorney’s office released a statement that said that Galati was able to keep up the fraud successfully because of “knack for designing creative accident scenarios and his network of rogue professionals who conspired with him to legitimize these claims.”
