Property, Life and Casualty Fraud

The Property, Life and Casualty Fraud Program accounts for approximately five percent of the Fraud Division's allocated budgetary resources. The funding stream for this program is generated by a $5,100 assessment for each certificate of authority in California. These funds are nonrestrictive and can be used to support all other Fraud Division program areas if needed. There is no local assistance component to this program.

This general program handles criminal investigations involving staged commercial/residential burglaries, life insurance fraud (which includes murder for profit cases), fraudulent natural disaster claims (wildfire, flood, earthquake, wind), slip and fall claims, internal embezzlement cases, false food contamination claims, and false marine claims. Criminal investigations in this program area can involve millions of dollars in loss (especially in life insurance fraud cases), and multiple claims for the same loss perpetrated by multiple suspects. Many of these cases have been jointly investigated in cooperation with local and federal law enforcement agencies and have been prosecuted at the local, state, or federal level.

During Fiscal Year 2021-22, the Fraud Division identified and reported 3,771 suspected fraud claims, assigned 81 new cases, made 23 arrests, and referred 39 submissions to prosecuting authorities. The potential loss of these referrals amounted to $307,445,196.