3 Members Of Trip-And-Fall Scheme Convicted Of Defrauding New York City-Area Businesses And Their

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3 Members Of Trip-And-Fall Scheme Convicted Of Defrauding New York City-Area Businesses And Their Insurance Companies Of More Than $31.7 Million


Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced the conviction in Manhattan federal court of BRYAN DUNCAN, ROBERT LOCUST, and RYAN RAINFORD. The jury convicted DUNCAN, LOCUST, and RAINFORD today for their participation in a conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud following a three-week trial before U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein. The jury also convicted DUNCAN of a second count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, along with one count of mail fraud and one count of wire fraud. Co-conspirators Peter Kalkanis, a former chiropractor, and Kerry Gordon previously pled guilty before Judge Stein to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud. Kalkanis also pled guilty to aggravated identity theft.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “Bryan Duncan, Robert Locust, and Ryan Rainford carried out a blatantly corrupt scheme, recruiting ‘patients,’ coaching them on how to stage trip-and-fall ‘accidents’ that were not accidents at all, and steering them to complicit lawyers, chiropractors, and doctors. They recruited indigent people, including from homeless shelters – people they thought would be most willing to undergo unneeded surgeries for the minimal cut of the proceeds the defendants would share. Duncan, Locust, and Rainford were tripped up by the justice system and have met their downfall.”

According to the allegations contained in the Indictment and Superseding Indictment, and the evidence presented in Court during the trial:

Between in or about 2013 through 2018, DUNCAN, LOCUST, and RAINFORD, the defendants, engaged in a widespread fraud scheme through which the defendants defrauded businesses and insurance companies by staging trip-and-fall accidents and filing fraudulent lawsuits arising from those staged trip-and-fall accidents. Fraud scheme participants, including the defendants, recruited hundreds of individuals to stage trip-and-fall accidents at particular locations throughout New York City and to claim that they injured themselves as a result of their accidents. Common accident sites used during the fraud scheme included cellar doors, cracks in concrete sidewalks, and purported “potholes.” The defendants instructed the recruited patients to claim that they sustained injuries to particular areas of their bodies, including the knees, shoulders, and/or back – body parts that, if injured, would reap high recoveries in personal injury lawsuits.

Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/3-members-trip-and-fall-scheme-convicted-defrauding-new-york-city-area-businesses-and