Insurance Fraud

Among crimes against business transactions, the Polish Criminal Code provides for extortion of compensation, or so-called insurance fraud. Insurance fraud can be committed either by an entity acting to obtain undue compensation, or by one who caused an insured event to occur under a contract for the benefit of another entity. In other words, anyone can commit insurance fraud if they acted for financial gain.

Examples of insurance fraud include:

• posing as traffic collisions in order to extort compensation;
• posing as car thefts;
• setting up or taking over business entities to defraud vehicle insurance claims;
• inflating repair costs by using false documents;
• antedating insurance policies;
• overstating the value of insured objects;
• collecting compensation from several insurance companies for the same loss.

Detecting insurance fraud

According to estimates by the Polish Chamber of Insurance, between 30 and 40% of all claims paid out are extortions. These figures illustrate the scale of the problem, which is growing, as the number of insurance frauds is forecast to increase further. Most often, this applies to vehicle compensation under AC and civil liability insurance. Given the prevalence of such practices, it is very important to have adequate compliance regulations.

Among insurance crimes, the predominant offenses are those described in Articles 286 § 1 and 3 of the Polish Criminal Code. This is the causing of an unfavorable disposition of property of another entity by misleading it or taking advantage of such a mistake. The number of classic insurance frauds described in Article 298 of the Polish Criminal Code is also very high. Slightly less frequent are computer insurance frauds and crimes described in the Insurance and Reinsurance Business Act.

KKZ Law Firm provides:

• full compliance legal support;
• advice in responding to crisis situations, including the development of a strategy of action and a possible line of defense;
• representation before law enforcement agencies for entities harmed by fraud by drafting a crime notification, participation in procedural activities and contacts with judicial authorities at every stage of preparatory and judicial proceedings;
• handling internal channels of whistleblower notifications;
• conducting internal compliance audits, internal investigations, preparing reports with detected irregularities and recommendations for changes;
• conducting internal training for employees, executives and board members on compliance related to insurance fraud.

We address our offer to:

• board members, supervisory board members and executives of commercial companies;
• persons conducting business activities;
• insurance companies;
• whistleblowers;
• entities harmed by insurance crimes.