January 16, 2007

"[Trauma-mill kingpin Norman] Chesler began cooperating with [Brooklyn DA Joe] Hynes's office after he was indicted in two no-fault car insurance scams by then state attorney general Eliot Spitzer's office." Eventually the trail led to a brown envelope filled with cash which Hynes is expected to charge passed as a quid pro quo in exchange for elevation to the Kings County bench. Wayne Barrett in the Voice has a big investigation (via Henry Stern); Gothamist has a brief summary.

One possible lesson to draw, if the charges pan out: injury-fraud rings and related trauma-medicine mills make good targets for investigation. This isn't the first time they've turned out to be linked to wider networks of corruption.