More than 70 alleged staged accident cases filed by interconnected Freeport network: lawsuit

A vast and interconnected network of Long Islanders, many of whom shared a handful of addresses in Freeport, collectively filed more than 70 lawsuits stemming from allegedly staged slip-and-fall or motor vehicle crashes in recent years, court records show.

A 207-page RICO lawsuit, filed in New York’s Eastern District on behalf of Greater New York Mutual Insurance Company, provides the most detailed accounting to date of the role Long Island — including nearly a dozen local doctors or medical firms named as defendants — has played in an alleged widespread fraud scheme designed to collect millions of dollars in insurance payouts for bogus accident claims.

Freeport-centric ring

The suit alleges that the Manhattan-based Liakas law firm directed individuals, commonly known as runners, to recruit new immigrants to stage accidents at various locations in the five boroughs and then claim a host of injuries to preferred medical providers from the supposed fall or vehicle crash.

Liakas then represented the claimants in personal injury lawsuits against landlords or property owners where the accidents occurred.

The filing identifies four runners, including a Manhattan attorney and three individuals from Freeport, the latter of whom together have connections — either through family, jobs or a shared address — to more than 70 other Long Islanders who’ve filed lawsuits in recent years alleging serious injuries from largely unwitnessed slip-and-fall accidents or commercial vehicle crashes that were allegedly staged. 

The Long Islanders allegedly staging the accidents — many of whom are related — were told that the amount of money they could receive would increase with expensive surgeries or rehabilitation, and that funding was available if they sought a medical diagnosis and treatment at one or more of the defendant medical firms, the suit alleges.

None of the defendants named in the suit have been criminally charged.

Mark Rolnik, a New Jersey-based attorney who allegedly acted as an intermediary between Liakas and the other runners, called the lawsuit "ridiculous" and said the case "was not going anywhere."

Many of the allegedly unnecessary spinal and back surgeries cited in the lawsuit occurred at Nassau University Medical Center, a public safety net hospital in East Meadow, even though all of the accidents were occurring west in New York City.

"These people are going to Long Island clinics. They're then undergoing surgery with Long Island surgeons. They live in Long Island, and yet, all of these accidents are in Brooklyn or the Bronx or Queens," said Dan Johnston, a Melville-based attorney representing the insurance provider. "And they're all represented by the same attorneys."

Hank Sheinkopf, a Liakas spokesman, argued that the suit follows a "familiar script" employed by other insurance providers who’ve filed similar racketeering complaints against law firms, medical providers, runners and financiers.

"Big insurance files a baseless claim, seeks to vilify plaintiff lawyers, and watches the case fall apart once judicial scrutiny is applied," Sheinkopf said. "Judges have consistently rejected these attempts because they are unsupported by facts or law. This is not about justice. It is about suppressing those who challenge an industry built on delay, denial, and deflection."

Dean Liakas, the law firm’s managing partner, who is named personally in the suit, lives in Oyster Bay.

The law firm has deep political connections.

Nicholas Liakas, the company's senior partner, who was named personally in the suit, last year posted a picture of himself in a box at Yankee Stadium with Gov. Kathy Hochul.

And New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently appointed Ali Najmi, the law firm's special counsel, as chair of the newly revitalized Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary.

Questionable injuries

The Freeport-based runners identified in the lawsuit, Marcos Tavarez, Jose Sone-Martinez and Luis Rodriguez, each did not respond to requests for comment.

Together, the men are connected to dozens of related lawsuits, the vast majority brought by individuals that arrived in New York from Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic shortly before their alleged accident — all while at some point residing in the same small number of addresses in the Village of Freeport, court papers show.

While the bulk of the accident claimants are not identified by name, photos included in the lawsuit, largely posted by the "victims" on their social media pages, demonstrate both their connections to one another while also raising questions about the validity of their injuries, the lawsuit states.

For example, a July 31, 2020, image posted by Sone-Martinez on social media showed 11 men celebrating a soccer tournament victory. Together the men have filed a combined 12 injury lawsuits, court records show.

Other images or videos included in the lawsuit showed:

• A man identified as "Claimant A" who testified that he was disabled and "unable to put on underwear without assistance" in full soccer gear with teammates within one month of his trial.
• A 29-year-old woman identified as "Claimant D" who claimed that she required the use of a cane to walk, could not hold utensils and had difficulty with her memory singing, dancing and gyrating following spinal fusion surgery.
• That same female claimant, a month after her surgery recommendation and two months before the procedure, is seen bowling and celebrating with friends.
• A two-story Freeport home on South Ocean Avenue occupied by an individual identified as "Claimant E" that he shared with nine other injury claimants.

The NUMC portal

The RICO lawsuit identifies a number of Long Island doctors and medical providers, several of whom have been cited in previous cases. They include Total Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, with four Long Island locations, and six of their current or former doctors or owners.

Among them are co-owner Vadim Lerman, who was barred by the state from treating patients with workers' compensation claims and former Total Ortho director Alexios Apazidis, an orthopedic spinal surgeon accused of copying and pasting dozens of operative reports verbatim.

Since 2007, Total Orthopedics has had a contract to operate NUMC's orthopedics department. In recent months, NUMC's new state-appointed board launched an investigatory review of Total Ortho's surgical cases and said it plans to reduce the company's outsized role at the hospital.

The new lawsuit raises fresh questions about the company's practices inside the public hospital, which is $1.4 billion in debt.

For example, the suit maps out a scheme allegedly employed by the firm in which they direct patients first seen at their Brooklyn locations to NUMC's emergency room, where an inability to pay or prior authorization from insurance companies does not preclude treatment. As a "safety net" hospital, patients who come in through the ER at NUMC must be treated, regardless of their ability to pay.

"It is alleged that these claimants ... routed through the ER were provided with scripts to recite so as to move through the ER to the [operating room] without issue," the suit states.

Meanwhile Total Ortho and their doctors, the suit alleges, are paid upfront privately by a financing company affiliated with the Liakas firm.

In addition, Lerman and company co-owner Karen Avanesov collectively own the largest physician-owned stake in a spinal implant manufacturer whose devices Total Ortho regularly implanted in NUMC surgical patients, the suit alleges.

"Since mid-2025, NUMC has taken proactive steps to investigate and correct issues within several service lines, including orthopedics, where an external review is underway, assessing concerns related to clinical care, documentation, and billing practices," said hospital spokesman Tommy Meara. "This review is ongoing and will inform further action including an evaluation of the structure of orthopedic services. Alternatives for the delivery of orthopedic care including spine care are currently under review."

Messages left with Total Ortho officials and with Apazidis' attorney were not returned.

'Pre-planned outcomes'

The suit also cites multiple examples of Total Ortho patients with difficult-to-believe office visits. 

They include a Jan. 11 appointment by Claimant D in which, during a 13-minute span, her vitals were inputted by a medical assistant; a full patient history was performed; followed by an extensive physical and neurological exam lasting one minute; a medical assessment delivered two minutes later and her records reviewed, signed and finalized one minute thereafter. In addition, the purported findings from a subsequent office visit were inputted three days prior than the actual office visit, the suit states.

"There is only one inference to draw," the suit states. "The purported 'findings,' review of systems, physical exam, and assessment and plan were already pre-written — dictated to medical assistants — two times over without having actually seen Claimant D. These were not just pre-planned outcomes, but pre-prepared office visits, observations, and plans masquerading as medical judgment."

Among the other Long Islanders named in the suit as performing surgeries that were "unnecessary, excessive, unwarranted, and/or costly and not causally related to the alleged accident," are Sands Point neurosurgeon Anders Cohen, Sports Medicine & Spine Rehab, which has offices in Bellmore and Massapequa, along with one of its operators. Dr. Silvia Geraci.

Neither Cohen nor Sports Medicine & Spine Rehab responded to requests for comment.

In a statement, Greater New York Mutual Insurance said the suit defends policyholders against "bad actors who abuse our judicial system for profit. ... Every New Yorker pays the price for insurance fraud in the form of higher prices on all goods and services, including housing. At this time when affordability is a top concern, we firmly believe that it is our civic duty to hold those responsible to account."

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.