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The three men all live on Long Island -- 60-year-old George Constantine in Plainview, 50-year-old Marc Elefant in Woodmere, and 67-year-old Andrew Dowd in Miller Place.
Constantine and Dowd were convicted at a trial in mid-December 2022 of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud.
Dowd was also found guilty of additional counts of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud.
Elefant pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
On Tuesday, April 25, Constantine and Dowd were each sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison by US District Judge Sidney H. Stein. Elefant received a two-year prison sentence.
All three were also sentenced to three years of supervised release.
Constantine was ordered to pay $4,774,709 in forfeiture. Dowd was ordered to pay $2,900,905 in forfeiture. Elefant was further ordered to pay $955,281.54 in forfeiture.
According to the Indictment, the evidence presented in court during the trial, and other statements made during court proceedings:
Between 2013 and 2018, Constantine, Elefant, and Dowd, engaged in an extensive fraud scheme in which they defrauded businesses and insurance companies by staging trip-and-fall accidents and filing fraudulent lawsuits arising from those staged trip-and-fall accidents.
Constantine and Elefant were personal injury lawyers involved in the scheme, while DOWD was an orthopedic surgeon.
Fraud Scheme participants recruited individuals to stage or falsely claim to have suffered trip-and-fall accidents at particular locations throughout the New York City area.
In the course of the scheme, participants recruited more than 400 patients who were extremely poor.
"For example, it was common for patients to ask for food when they would appear for their intake meetings with the lawyers," according to the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York's Office. "Many of the patients did not have sufficient clothing to keep them warm during the winter and had poor-quality shoes.
"Members of the Fraud Scheme also recruited patients who were drug addicts, and it was common for scheme participants to recruit Patients from homeless shelters in New York City."
In the beginning, scheme participants would instruct patients to claim they had tripped and fallen at a particular location, when in fact, the patients had suffered no such accidents.
Eventually, at the direction of the lawyers who filed fraudulent lawsuits on behalf of the patients, scheme participants began to instruct patients to stage trip-and-fall accidents, going to a location and deliberately falling.
Common accidentsSites used during the fraud scheme included cellar doors, cracks in concrete sidewalks, and purported “potholes.”
After the staged trip-and-fall accidents, patients were referred to specific attorneys, including Constantine and Elefant, who would file personal injury lawsuits against the owners of the accident sites and/or insurance companies of the owners of the accident sites.
During the course of the scheme, the defendants, together with others, attempted to defraud the victims of more than $31,000,000.
Constantine personally filed nearly 200 fraudulent lawsuits and earned more than $5 million dollars in settlement fees from these fraudulent cases.
Elefant filed nearly 200 fraudulent lawsuits and earned millions of dollars in settlement fees.
The patients were also instructed to receive ongoing chiropractic and medical treatment from certain chiropractors and doctors, including Dowd.
During the course of the Scheme, Dowd performed nearly 300 medically unnecessary surgeries and earned more than $3.2 million dollars.
"As officers of the court, Constantine and Elefant had a duty to honestly represent their clients and uphold the rule of law," US Attorney for the Southern District of NY Damian Williams said after the sentencing. "Instead, they filed hundreds of fraudulent lawsuits that were filled with lies and stole millions of dollars from small businesses and insurance companies.
"Likewise, Dowd, as a medical doctor, took an oath to do no harm. But motivated by pure greed, Dowd performed hundreds of medically unnecessary surgeries, earning thousands of dollars per surgery.
"These sentences send a clear message to all who chose to engage in fraud – no matter their professional title or degree – that they will be held accountable.”
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