Washington man charged with insurance fraud; claimed his $33k collection of neckties was stolen

A Lynnwood, Wash. man has been charged with insurance fraud after claiming that car thieves had made off with his $33,000 collection of silk neckties.

Carlton H. Wopperer, 49, is scheduled to be arraigned on July 6, 2010 in Snohomish County Superior Court on two counts of insurance fraud.


Three times in 9 years, he claimed, thieves had stolen his collection of 212 silk neckties from his vehicle. But an investigation revealed that Wopperer had returned many of the ties within minutes of buying them.

“You can’t return a product, keep the receipt, and then claim that the product was stolen. That’s classic insurance fraud,” said Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler. “And insurance fraud drives up the cost of premiums for everyone else.”

For more details on the case, please click here.
 
To report staged accidents, faked injuries, double-billing of insurers or other insurance fraud in Washington state, call the insurance commissioner’s Special Investigations Unit at (360) 586-2566 or email them at contactSIU@oic.wa.gov.

To report suspicious health insurance offers, Medicare fraud, or problems with agents or brokers, see http://www.insurance.wa.gov/fraud/report-fraud.shtml.