Smoke, Mirrors & Profits: How Big Insurance Is Using “Fraud” as a Red Herring to Inflate Premiums and Protect Its Bottom Line

In a headline-grabbing campaign that looks, on its face, like a noble crusade against fraud, a closer look possibly reveals something far more calculated: a corporate strategy driven by the insurance industry to distract from its own profit-maximizing agenda. Is this an orchestrated collaboration between Tradesman Program Managers (TPM), Roosevelt Road Capital Partners (RRCP), and even a former investigative journalist? A deeper dive raises concerns that this appears less like a public service and more like a sophisticated PR and litigation machine—built not to protect injured workers or the truth, but to pad the already deep pockets of insurers.

Let’s play devil's advocate and break down how a coordinated effort may not just reshape the narrative around construction site injuries, but also quietly drive up insurance premiums, squeezing policyholders, and tilting the legal playing field—all while these companies report record-setting profits.

A Convenient Target: The “Fraud Epidemic”

In recent months, TPM and RRCP have launched a barrage of high-profile lawsuits accusing plaintiffs’ attorneys, medical professionals, and injured workers of widespread fraud in construction injury claims. To amplify the message, former WABC-TV journalist Kristin Thorne conducted an investigative series on “staged” construction accidents—a series that prominently featured TPM as the aggrieved victim of systemic fraud.

Shortly after these exposés aired, Thorne left journalism and was hired by a TPM affiliate, Roosevelt Road Specialty, as SVP of Corporate Communications. The timing is suspicious. The optics are worse.

The insurance industry now had its own crusading journalist-turned-employee—someone who had built credibility exposing fraud and could now spin that same narrative in service of her new employer’s agenda.

But here’s the twist: this narrative isn’t about cleaning up fraud. It’s about manufacturing a crisis to justify skyrocketing insurance premiums, insulating insurers from liability, and discrediting injury claims before they reach the courthouse steps.

The Red Herring: Fraud as a Smokescreen for Profit

Is fraud in the construction injury space a real concern? Of course. But the scale and focus of TPM and Roosevelt Road’s campaign suggest something more than a good-faith effort to clean up bad actors. When hundreds of lawsuits are filed every year for serious, often life-altering injuries—and only a fraction are flagged as potentially fraudulent—why does TPM treat fraud as the rule rather than the exception?

The answer lies in profits.

TPM’s financial records reveal explosive growth and massive returns to shareholders:

• Over $250 million in written premiums in 2022

• $26.5 million in EBITDA in that same year

• R&Q (former minority shareholder) earned 3.7x its investment in less than five years

• $46 million in dividends paid out to investors

• $47 million buyback deal to consolidate ownership under RRCP

• $75 million credit facility secured to expand even further

All while crying wolf about fraudulent claims.

So, what’s really going on here?

TPM and its affiliates are using a handful of questionable claims—some possibly staged—as a pretext to shift public perception, justify higher premiums, and devalue legitimate claims in court. This not only drives up revenues from policyholders (mostly contractors forced to carry liability insurance), but also creates an environment where injured workers face more scrutiny, more hurdles, and ultimately, lower payouts.

Premiums Up, Payouts Down—The Insurance Industry’s Perfect Game

The strategy is painfully clear:

1. Scare the public and lawmakers with sensational fraud stories.

Leverage media exposure to create a perception that the system is overrun with fraud. Use emotionally charged videos, hand-picked cases, and whistleblower-style journalism to shape public opinion. Push for legislation to criminalize claimants.

2. Sue the plaintiffs’ bar.

File civil RICO lawsuits against lawyers and doctors. Weaponize the courts to make pursuing injury claims a reputational and financial hazard. Even if claims are legitimate, firms may think twice before taking them on.

3. Increase premiums.

TPM itself has stated that fraud is driving up insurance costs—costs that are passed on to contractors and property owners in the form of significantly higher general liability premiums. A problem the insurers claim to hate is actually helping them raise rates.

4. Reduce claim payouts.

With suspicion heightened, insurers can challenge more claims, delay settlements, and demand extensive documentation. Fewer claims get paid. The ones that do, settle for less.

5. Reinvest the profits.

TPM is not struggling. It’s expanding. Its parent RRCP now controls a Bermuda-based reinsurer (Roosevelt Road Re) and is scaling operations nationally. The money saved from denying claims and charging higher premiums is being recycled into growth, not returned to the insured community.

Follow the Money, Not the Media Narrative

Are we seeing the classic bait-and-switch? Use a few dramatic anecdotes to paint an entire legal ecosystem as broken. Brand every injured worker as a suspect. Turn every lawyer into a racketeer. All while reporting record-breaking profits to investors, paying out millions in dividends, and consolidating power behind a wall of litigation and PR.

Let’s be clear: no one supports fraud. But let’s also not pretend that these lawsuits and media blitzes are about truth or justice. They’re about controlling the narrative, undermining plaintiff rights, and maximizing shareholder return.

If this were truly about transparency and fairness, TPM wouldn’t be hand-picking stories or hiring the journalist who created them. They’d be investing in claim verification, not courtroom intimidation. They’d be advocating for balance in the legal system, not building a media-to-litigation pipeline that starts on prime-time TV and ends in federal court.

Final Thought

The construction industry is dangerous. Workers get hurt. And under New York law, they have a right to recover for unsafe working conditions. That’s not fraud—that’s the law.

Let’s not allow a handful of cherry-picked incidents and a flashy media campaign to upend decades of hard-won worker protections. When insurers cry fraud while cashing in, it’s time to ask: who’s really gaming the system?

There are differing perspectives and opinions on the matter, and this blog is just that, an opinion. Do your own research and decide where the truth lies.

If you or someone you know has been accused of filing a fraudulent claim—or is being unfairly targeted by insurance companies—know your rights. Contact Leitner Warywoda today. We don’t back down. We fight for the truth.

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