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Show s ' & people will tell us that lawyers are withdrawing a lot of cases voluntarily. The rate of suspicious cases just drops. After we make an initial impact, it's just a case of keeping the pressure on." To keep the pressure on, Ahern has assembled a top-notcorps of 70 fulltime investigators, working out of regional offices across the country. ch - 3 i Recruiting agents The ICPI agents are former local and state policemen, former FBI agents, postal inspectors. Internal Revenue Service investigators, even investigative reporters. The top men are all former top cops, like Ahem. Francis J. Wolfe, his assistant, retired as a deputy inspector with the New York City Police Department, holds 16 citations from it. Ira Bluth, director of ICPI's Eastern Region, was a deputy chief inspector in New York, coordinated the narcotics operation that became known as the "French Connection." Charles G. Ward, the Midwest regional director, served 26 years with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, arrested Joseph the underworld informant who the gave country its first real insight into the Mafia. Kenneth J. McCauley, the Western regional director, retired from the Los Angeles Police Department as head of the Investigative Services. ICPI agents have no power of arrest or subpoena, do not carry guns. Instead, they work with existing authorities local, state and national pass on information which they have gathered and hope for indictments. "They work awfully hard and long," says Ahern. "Maybe it's because they have their freedom. Our only purpose is to fight crime. We don't put any pressures on our agents, except to do the job." This philosophy ties in with Ahern's criticism of police spelled out in his book Police in Trouble. It is that police departments are involved in work that has nothing to do with preventing crime and are subject to all sorts of political and underworld pressures to look the other way. He leaves his agents alone as long as they do the job they were hired to do. Va-lac- Criminal ingenuity What sort of crimes do the agents turn up? "It boggles the mind," says Ahern. The capacity to cheat is virtually unlimited. So is the ingenuity. People mutilate themselves to get insurance settlements. One town in Florida is known as "Nub City," because so many of its residents have filed claims about loss of fingers and toes. One case involved a lady who filed insurance claims with several companies, saying she had been knocked off the toilet in her camper by motorists. There are "slip" artists who take falls in hotel lobbies. Others concentrate on falling outside or inside churches, reasoning that the church will settle quickly. Before Ahern's organization came into being, a clever person could file claims against dozens of insurance companies and get settlements from all. The insurance business is a very competitive one. Aetna doesn't tell Allstate what policies it is writing or what settlements it is making. Now, however, any member insurance company suspecting a fraudulent claim can notify the ICPI. It has a computer at its Westport headquarters that can instantly feed back information about past cases or complaints. Ah! Here it is. Same name, seven complaints, seven falls, all at Sheraton hotels in different cities. One car, many cases Take Your RV fable Out To Eat with J lr&uxflivnl Ms Convert your RV table for outside use INSTANTLY! s Sometimes a car can be used in several insurance settlements without the owner's knowledge. A crooked body shop will take a car brought in from it under three an accident, or four other names with phony new numbers and collect three or four other settlements. The poor guy who owns the car waits for it to be fixed, while all the other fixing is going on. Ahern's investigators go after the small cases, too, but they concentrate on the big operators the "gangs" that specialize in insurance fraud. These involve "runners" equipped with police scanner radios who get to accidents first, refer the person involved to unethical lawyers who work with unethical doctors to escalate costs of accidents and work up big insurance settlements. Sometimes the accidents are simply faked, with the same people involved over and over. "There's not a city in this country that doesn't have some sort of operation involving runners, lawyers and doctors," says Ahern. "We're still finding out how far and deep it goes." No-fau- lt no help insurance has failed to deter fraud, he says. "In fact, it's safe to say lt has increased fraud. These that accident costs over escalate people just lt threshold. the Ahern says state bar and medical associations have been looking the other way. "No one can tell me they don't know what's going on, but they are very wary about policing their own professions." The American Medical Association and the American Bar Association say they have no power to discipline members. The AMA has about 165,000 members of the 400,000 doctors, active and retired, in the U.S. The ABA has 207,000 of the 350,000 lawyers. A spokesman for the AMA said recommendations have been made to state licensing commissions, "which too frequently are not followed. We have called on them to become more No-fau- lt no-fau- no-fau- continued The Porta-Legbase is designed exclusively for use with center support column RV tables. An innovative accessory that will expand the pleasure your camper or motor home. 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