The Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Katowice has filed an indictment against members of an organized criminal group which committed a number of frauds to the detriment of insurers. They are threatened with up to ten years imprisonment.
The investigation against the organized group was carried out by the police officers from the department for combating economic crime of the Voivodeship Police Headquarters in Katowice. The case concerns the extortion of more than PLN 18 million from commissions. From April 2014 to November 2015, fifteen members of a criminal group acted as intermediaries in concluding life insurance contracts linked to a savings program, offering very favorable terms. The signatories of the insurance applications were convinced that the policies were free products and that they could resign from the contract without any consequences. The condition for taking advantage of the offer was to persuade other people to join the insurance. In fact, members of an organized group were paying the first fees themselves. The insurance company, after receiving the first installment of the premium, paid a commission. Some of the contracts were fictitious. Personal data obtained from other companies was used to issue them. Often, members of the group offered small amounts of money for signing the insurance contract, at the same time overstating in the applications the information about the income they earned, in order to extort higher commissions. The suspects concluded in total almost 1500 fictitious contracts for which they received over PLN 18 million.
The indictment was filed against fifteen persons who were charged with 52 counts of participation in criminal groups and committing crimes to the detriment of insurance companies.
