Republic Western Insurance Investigator Named Florida Investigator of the Year

Thursday June 23, 1:36 pm ET

PHOENIX, June 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Republic Western Insurance Company (RepWest), a subsidiary of AMERCO (Nasdaq: UHAL – News), announced today that Robert Longo, investigator for the company’s Special Investigative Unit (SIU), Georgia Field Claims Office, has been named the 2004/2005 “Investigator of the Year” by the Florida Insurance Fraud Education Committee at their annual anti-fraud insurance seminar held June 14-16 in Orlando, Fla.

Longo was chosen from a select group of nominees who have demonstrated exceptional investigative abilities and whose efforts have made a significant impact on furthering Florida’s fraud-interdiction efforts. Criteria for the award included:

– Impact investigation made in the fight against insurance fraud.
– Positive effect investigation had on the insurance industry and the
community.
– Uniqueness of the investigation.
– Exceptional qualities of the investigator.
– Recognition received from nominee’s peers.

For the past year, Longo has been the lead investigator on three suspected staged-accident rings. One was a large-scale staged-accident ring dubbed “The Miami 19” because of its geographic location and number of individual claim files associated with it. Longo identified the scam and, working with the Florida Division of Financial Services, National Insurance Crime Bureau and Delta Investigative Services, identified the ringleader of the scam, numerous individuals who participated in the staged losses, several crooked medical providers who submitted billing and treatment records for services that were never rendered, and unscrupulous attorneys who used these bogus bills to submit false bodily-injury claims.

As a result of Longo’s efforts, 39 individuals were arrested and charged with various criminal counts under the Florida insurance-fraud statute.

“Winning this award is truly a great honor. However, it represents a team effort,” Longo stated. “We have a great SIU team. The word is out on the streets that U-Haul and RepWest are not easy targets. We will investigate any suspicious claims.”

“My sincerest congratulations to Robert on this significant achievement. Aggressively combating fraud is one of the single most important focuses we have in our field claims offices,” stated RepWest President Richard Amoroso.

RepWest has been domiciled in Arizona as a property and casualty insurance company since 1973. The company employs 250 professionals and operates eight claims-adjusting offices throughout the United States and Canada. RepWest has been a pioneer in developing innovative products for U-Haul self-move and self-storage customers.

Source: Republic Western Insurance Company