Judge Richard Brown: Insurance Crime Fighter
By Gregory V. Serio
When one thinks of a district attorney from New York City, the scene goes to any one of a number of celebrated crime stories from the City That Never Sleeps: murder, mayhem, and madness, it seems, trump virtually everything else. For anyone who ever tried to gain the attention of prosecutors for an insurance fraud case, even the most salacious of stories could barely hold a candle to the screaming headlines of the New York Post or other tabloids blaring the most recent heinous act. In Queens County, though, Judge Richard Brown was no ordinary district attorney, and his attention to insurance fraud cases was just one way he set himself apart from his peers. And rate payers, insurers and the public are all the better for it.
Judge Brown, who liked to be addressed that way even after he entered the district attorney’s office, died on May 4, 2019 after a remarkable twenty-eight year run in that post. He left behind a legacy of showing up at crime scenes at all hours of the day and night, starting a school—at the district attorney’s office—for wayward youth, and for providing seemingly limitless attention and dedication to every insurance fraud case that crossed his desk.
The insurance fraud stories that came out of the office over the early 2000s could have spun around on broadsheets the way the movies would reveal screaming headlines: “Car Insurance Scam Nets 30 in Queens Sting Operation.” “Multi-State Motorcycle Theft Ring Busted; 16 Charged with Stealing 81 Cycles.” “43 Indicted in N.Y. Auto ‘Fraud Factory.’” The list goes on…for a very long time. As he put it, insurance fraud was an issue in his cross-hairs from the time he came into office in 1991 and it proved to be a constant focus throughout his long tenure.
While workers compensation and health insurance had their due, Judge Brown really enjoyed the auto insurance fraud cases. Cars are more important in Queens than in any other borough save Staten Island, and for years New York held the ignominious honor of having among the highest car insurance rates in the country. Whether from his days on the bench, or his time in Albany shaping public policy as a senior legislative or gubernatorial staffer, Judge Brown understood the simple yet critical correlation between auto insurance fraud and the hit on the wallets of the hard-working, largely blue collar constituency that he served.
Fraud rings, in particular, allowed Judge Brown to roll up his sleeves and dig into a crime that looked both as sophisticated as a Manhattan financial fraud and as gritty as any street crime of some of the tougher parts of his own county. From Far Rockaway on the south shore to Flushing on the north, and all the communities of Queens in between, the Queens district attorney’s office, together with the New York State Insurance Department/Department of Financial Services and the New York City Police Department cast a large blanket of intelligence gathering, undercover operations and stings to root out auto insurance fraud there.
Judge Brown seemed to take particular delight in one operation that netted multiple suspects from neighboring Nassau County.
The companies favorably assisted by the singular commitment of the Queens district attorney to root out auto insurance fraud read like a who’s who of auto insurance writers: Clarendon, Tri-State Consumer, State farm and Allstate, among many others. But Judge Brown did not do it for the carriers, he did it for those insured by those carriers. And he did it because he understood the realities of insurance fraud as an insidious economic crime and very much a dangerous crime, including the likes of organized crime and street gangs on more than one occasion.
As recently as 2017 Judge Brown was still at it, looking to bolster his office’s capabilities at fighting auto theft and auto insurance fraud. In announcing a grant received by his office of over $500,000, Judge Brown rightfully took a victory lap: the number of autos stolen in the borough had declined 96 percent from the time he entered office in 1991, according to the website Queens.com. And he was a major contributor to New York’s plummet on the list of states with the highest auto insurance rates. But that would hardly allow him to rest, as he intended to use the funds to add more assistant district attorneys and investigators to his Auto Crime and Insurance Fraud Unit. The fact that such a unit even existed within the Queens district attorney’s office is a testimonial to Judge Brown’s unwavering commitment to the good fight.
The insurance world in New York may not have known of the Queens District Attorney’s passion for fighting insurance fraud, or his remarkable success at it. It may now find out the hard way unless the next Queens district attorney is as singularly driven to the fight against insurance fraud as was Judge Richard Brown. To him we all say, thanks for a job well done.
Gregory V. Serio is Partner and Managing Director at Park Strategies, LLC. He is the leader of its risk and insurance management practice group.
Prior to joining Park Strategies, Mr. Serio served as Superintendent of Insurance for the State of New York and collaborated on a number of insurance fraud cases with the Queens District Attorney Brown during that period. As Superintendent, Mr. Serio was responsible for the regulation of all forms of insurance transacted in New York, and led an agency of more than 1,000 employees with a budget greater than $125 million. During his tenure, the State of New York saw substantial declines in the cost of automobile insurance, the success of a nationally-recognized health insurance program for the working uninsured, the growth of captive insurance companies as a meaningful alternative to traditional insurance programs, and the commencement of wide-ranging investigations into insurance carrier and broker activities.
Mr. Serio was also significantly involved in New York State’s and the insurance regulatory community’s response to the atrocities of September 11th. He coordinated the New York department’s response and recovery from those events, working with local, state and federal agencies, the insurance communities’ many sectors and individual insured’s to expedite the settlement of claims and restore the financial condition of the New York property insurance and life insurance industries. Mr. Serio testified on numerous occasions before the United States Congress, New York Legislature, and other entities on the after-effects of the World Trade Center attacks on New York and the American and global insurance markets, and led many of the efforts of the National Association of insurance Commissioners in responding to the issues arising from those events. Mr. Serio also served, in the aftermath of the September 11th tragedy, as a member and NAIC representative on the Financial Services and Banking Information Infrastructure Committee of the United States Treasury, a component of President George W. Bush’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Initiative.
Mr. Serio also served as the Chairman of the NAIC’s Government Affairs Task Force, the federal relations arm of the organization. In that capacity, he led the NAIC’s Washington office on the U.S. House Financial Services Committee SMART legislation on modernization of insurance regulation and discussions on the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.
Before his appointment to Superintendent, Mr. Serio served as first deputy and general counsel of the New York Insurance Department since 1995. He was previously the chief counsel to the New York State Senate Standing Committee on Insurance and served in a variety of other legal positions for the New York Senate prior to joining the Insurance Committee. Mr. Serio was also in the practice of law for several years associated with Rivkin Radler on Long Island and Crane, Kelley, Greene and Parente in Albany, N.Y.
Mr. Serio is a graduate of Albany Law School of Union University and the State University of New York at Albany. Mr. Serio is a frequent lecturer on insurance, risk management and business continuity policy and practice. He serves the Mississippi State University Insurance Program as a frequent lecturer and as a member of their Global Advisory Board. He is on the board and a former chairman of the Senior Health Insurance Plan of Pennsylvania. Additionally, he is a member of the Advisory Council of the College of St. Rose School of Business.Mr. Serio is engaged in numerous non-profit and community activities. He serves as a fiduciary of the Pension Plan for Insurance Organizations and has assisted in the reform of many of the plan’s governance and management practices. He is Fire Chief for the Verdoy, N.Y., Fire District.
Mr. Serio is also the host of the Park Strategies Small Business Report on WGDJ Talk 1300 AM.
Mr. Serio resides with his family in Latham, N.Y.
