John Dingell: “H.R. 4092, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, contains an important proposal that I, along with…”

“H.R. 4092, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, contains an important proposal that I, along with my colleague, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, introduced last year. This bill, H.R. 665, is now title IV of H.R. 4092. It would make it a Federal crime to defraud an insurance company. I believe that this new statute will help prevent many of the serious crimes perpetrated by some unscrupulous individuals in the interstate insurance arena. Title IV of the crime bill is the result of 3 years of hearings conducted by the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. These hearings demonstrated that the enforcement of insurance laws and regulations is one of the weakest links in the present insurance regulatory system. States apparently are not collecting adequate information, investigating wrongdoing, or taking legal action against the perpetrators of insurance fraud even when an insolvency results from that fraud. Statutory penalties and remedies also seem out-of-step with the realities of today's insurance market and the interstate and international nature of the business of insurance today. The hearings showed that there is little fear of meaningful administrative sanctions or criminal prosecution, and that there is no Federal deterrent for most complex insurance fraud schemes.”