PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA (BNO NEWS) – Seventeen people from Pennsylvania, including a chiropractor and an attorney, were charged for defrauding insurance companies with staged accidents, prosecutors said Friday.

The group of people involved in the scheme would file false accident reports in order to receive free medical care, attempting to receive civil settlement payments. The “victims” filed fraudulent insurance claims after staging phony accidents that never happened.

In some cases, they even obtained false police reports from a then-active Philadelphia police officer, recruited participants as supposed drivers and passengers in the fabricated accidents, approached a chiropractor and attorneys, and demanded kickbacks from civil settlement awards.

The stories were planned out and coordinated between the co-conspirators, and the cars and trucks were intentionally damaged at an auto body shop or by driving them into a wall to make the accidents more believable.

Dr. Stephen Rios, a Philadelphia chiropractor, is charged with 23 counts of mail fraud for falsifying patient treatment records and billing for fictitious services.

Attorney Glori A. Kasner is also charged with mail fraud related to two of these schemes.

“This entire group presents a sorry picture of people who forgot the basic principle that lying to get money is stealing,” said U.S. Attorney Michael L. Levy. “In the case of the attorney and the chiropractor, they are members of professions that demand honesty of their practitioners. Nevertheless, they were comfortable making up facts to make a buck.”

Fifteen other individuals from the Philadelphia area have been charged for the insurance scheme.

MetLife, Cambridge, State Farm, Allstate, Safe Auto, AIG, Liberty Mutual, Progressive, Rutgers, Nationwide, Erie, Proformance, and USAA are some of the affected insurance companies that lost over $634,000.

If convicted, the maximum possible sentence for each mail fraud count is 20 years imprisonment, 3 years of supervised release, mandatory restitution, a $250,000 fine, and a $100 special assessment.

“Insurance fraud is an insidious crime that victimizes not only the companies that pay out fraudulently-obtained settlements, but also victimizes each and every American who pays their insurance premiums every month,” said Special Agent-in-Charge Janice K. Fedarcyk, of the Philadelphia Division of the FBI. “The FBI places a high priority on investigating these types of insurance schemes, particularly when we uncover alleged schemes as complex and far-reaching as we have seen in this continuing investigation, and in these indictments announced (Friday).”