NEW YORK CITY FIREFIGHTER CONVICTED OF GRAND LARCENY IN SCHEMES TO DEFRAUD INSURANCE COMPANY AND THE NYC LAW DEPARTMENT’S DIVISION OF WORKERS COMPENSATION

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today the conviction of a New York City Firefighter on charges of grand larceny stemming from schemes to defraud an insurance company and illegally collect workers compensation benefits from the city of New York.

Curtis Crowe, 40, of 769 Arnow Avenue, the Bronx, pled guilty to two counts of Grand larceny in the third degree. Crowe pled guilty on separate indictments in which he was charged with stealing a total of nearly $17,000 from the Hartford Insurance Company and the Workers Compensation Division of the New York City Law Department.

Acting State Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett set sentencing for January 12, 2004 in Part M60. The judge ordered Crowe to make full restitution of the funds and indicated that the defendant would be given a conditional discharge at sentencing.

The first of the crimes came to light as a result of a probe by the NYC Department of Investigation in May 2000 after being contacted by the New York State Insurance Department’s Frauds Bureau. DOI was informed by the state agency that Crowe was receiving workers’ compensation benefits from the State of Nebraska at the same time that he was drawing a salary as a New York City firefighter.

DOI’s investigation uncovered evidence that Crowe, who was appointed a firefighter on February 1, 2000, continued collecting workers’ compensation benefits through April 2000. During the three month period in question, Crowe received and cashed ten checks totaling $4,666 from the Hartford Insurance Company. The benefits were for leg and hip injuries resulting from an accident in December 1999 while Crowe was performing as a ballet dancer on tour in Omaha, Nebraska. In the months prior to his appointment as a firefighter, Crowe filled out a medical history questionnaire in which he stated that he had no injury that would prevent him from performing the duties of a firefighter.

A second theft of more than $12,000 in illegally obtained benefits from the City Workers’ Compensation Fund also was uncovered during the course of the investigation. It was discovered that the City Workers’ Compensation Board in 1997 awarded Crowe benefits in the amount of $220 every two weeks after determining that Crowe was partially and permanently disabled as a result of working as a New York City lifeguard in 1992. However, when Crowe was hired by the New York City Fire Department in February 2000, he passed a physical exam indicating that he was fit for duty. In December 2001, nearly two years after he began working as a firefighter, Crowe submitted a notarized affidavit to the New York City Law Department stating that he was not working in order to continue receiving Workers’ Compensation Benefits.

District Attorney Johnson thanked Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn and her staff, as well as his own staff for the hard work and dedication that uncovered the paper trail resulting in Crowe’s conviction. He also thanked the New York City Fire Department and the New York City Law Department’s Workers Compensation Division for contributing to the successful prosecution of this case.