Day: January 15, 2008

Follow the Money Part II: Putting the Screws to the Common Man

Folks this Cowboy saw this in today’s Sun Herald and would like to give a big tip of my 10 gallon hat to Anita Lee over Sun Herald way. Our work raising insurance awareness would not be possible without the bang up job done by Ms. Lee covering these issues and this Cowboy would like to thank Ms. Lee for her dedication to this issue. Notice who represents USAA. It’s none other than our boy Greg Copeland who has his fingers in every insurance pie here in Mississippi.

Today we see her story on the Aiken lawsuit against USAA and once again the hos at Rimkus and their proclivity to change on site work sight unseen is on display. Don’t worry folks them boys are telling us all these changed engineering reports are just an honest mistake…..and if you believe that I got some gold spray painted Pig Scat I wanna sell you for $400/ounce. The story in it’s entirety:

Structural engineer testifies in USAA trial

By ANITA LEE
SUN HERALD

GULFPORT –A structural engineer admitted he changed a report that detailed Hurricane Katrina damage to a homeowner’s property, but told a jury he did so for accuracy and clarity rather than to downplay wind damage so USAA Casualty Insurance Co. would owe less money.

Structural engineer James W. Jordan reviewed several changes he made to the report completed by engineer Roverta Chapa, who actually inspected the property at Henderson Point on the Bay of St. Louis in Harrison County. Chapa and Jordan did not communicate before Jordan made the changes, which was against policy established by Jordan’s employer, Rimkus Consulting Group Inc.

Policyholders David W. and Marilyn M. Aiken claim Rimkus and USAA conspired to defraud them. They want their insurance claim paid in full, plus extra damages to punish the companies. Their lawsuit will resume this morning with testimony from Chapa.

Rimkus and USAA claim the Aikens are seeking more money than they deserve because federal flood insurance paid them policy limits for tidal surge damage, while USAA offered a check to cover what the wind could have destroyed. USAA and other insurance companies exclude such flood damage from coverage, which has led to hundreds of disputes between policyholders and insurers. However, this is the first case with claims of fraudulent engineering reports to reach trial in federal court.

The Aikens maintain a tornado destroyed their vacation home before 25 feet of water inundated the property.

USAA attorney Greg Copeland told the jury during opening arguments that the Aikens simply wanted to maximize their payments for Katrina damage. Their flood coverage totalled $278,000. USAA paid $178,205 in structural and contents damage on a policy that provided more than $680,000 in coverage.

But the Aikens’ attorney, George W. Healy IV, told the jury that evidence would show the companies “intentionally and with forethought came up with a plan to deny legitimate claims.”

Rimkus attorney David Ward said testimony will show the Aikens hired their own engineer because David Aiken accompanied the Rimkus engineer on his inspection and knew the engineer thought water had caused most of the damage. Ward told the jury they would hear firsthand about communications between Rimkus and USAA, so they should not believe Healy. “You can be the judge of the facts,” he said, “not the allegations.”

Follow the Money Pardners to The Fox in the Henhouse

Now this Cowboy has known for a long time that the insurance industry was in charge of the Mississippi Insurance Department, especially when George Dale was in charge and layin’ down with them crooks. Now they is becoming more brazen as one of them hired guns has sashayed out of hiding to do the bidding of his master USAA Insurance Company. His name is Greg Copeland and when he ain’t hepin’ his pay master to keep people homeless or lobbyin’ against the little man for his pay master at big insurance or representing George Dale in court he is is eating at the public trough over at the Mississippi Windpool. Ole Greg sure does get around folks.

Take a look at the windpool website and see if you can tell who runs it? Them boys sure must not be proud of their work up there or else they’d tell us who was on the Board of Directors and such beyond, “The MWUA is administered by a Board of Directors and all rules and regulations are subject to the review of the Commissioner of Insurance. The Board of Directors consists of eight members, five (5) to be representatives of the member companies and three (3) representatives of agencies from the coast area appointed by the Commissioner of Insurance.”

This Cowboy is reminded of the cockroach theory (tip of the 10 gallon hat to Sop for that one) when it comes to that bunch at the windpool. Nothing but bad news and ohhh dawgie do they hide from the sunshine. This Cowboy wonders how much wind pool premium went to things like lavish travel and commish for Greg and the gang? Like Sop pointed out to me after he looked at their financial statement for 2006 that these folks must not have an annual audit. Even worse is the fact that almost 22% of the premiums collected from us good folk in the 6 coastal counties went to commissions in 2006. It don’t take no financial expert to smell the stink on Crane Ridge Drive in Jackson. That smell is so bad this Cowboy can smell it all the way down here on the coast and it stinks worse than pig shit mixed with dead fish!

So this Cowboy is gonna give the folks reading us a two-fer Tuesday as Mr. Copeland and his band of greedy corporate lawyers who make money keeping folks homeless deserves two posts. I also challenge the good folks reading us in New York, Jackson and Washington to follow their nose to the stink this Cowboy describes.