Man Who Sold Abortion Business Bogus Malpractice Insurance Sentenced

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   May 21, 2007   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Man Who Sold Abortion Business Bogus Malpractice Insurance Sentenced Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 21
, 2007

Atlanta, GA (LifeNews.com) — A man who sold fraudulent medical malpractice insurance to a North Dakota abortion business has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison and has had to relinquish considerable amounts of money and property. However, the man sold the bogus insurance to other abortion facilities, potentially putting women at risk.

William Ledee III, a 64 year-old Atlanta resident, sold the fraudulent insurance to the Fargo Red River Women’s Clinic abortion facility — the only abortion business in the state.

Ledee will head to prison in Atlanta for five years and 10 months Patrick Crosby, a spokesman for federal prosecutors, told AP. Crosby also said Ledee will forfeit $10 million in in cash and real estate — including a home in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Ledee’s company, Professional Liability Insurance Co., advertised medical malpractice coverage but had no loss revenues other assets to pay out claims.

The businessman plead guilty last August of wire fraud, mail fraud, interstate transport of money taken by fraud, money laundering and using false financial statements.

The North Dakota Insurance Department began investigating Ledee in 2004 and Insurance Commissioner Jim Poolman issued a citation prohibiting Ledee from doing business in the state.

Poolman told the abortion facility to release its medical malpractice insurance records to the state after it was found that the facility had contracted with the bogus company.

Red River wouldn’t comply with the request and Poolman obtained a subpoena for the records.

Poolman’s findings prompted concerns about abortion centers putting women at risk by not being able to cover legal claims after botched abortions.

PLIC was told to quit doing business in the state of Washington because it is considered an insurance scam selling false insurance policies. Other states, including Florida, Alabama, Illinois Mississippi, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Texas have prohibited PLIC form operating there.

Pro-life leaders expressed their concerns after the president of an abortion business network admitted that the fraudulent malpractice insurer was widely used among abortion facilities nationwide.

"The entire abortion industry is based on fraud and deception, and it’s the clients — women — who get taken," Wendy Wright, Senior Policy Director for Concerned Women of America told LifeNews.com at the time.

"The latest revelation that abortion clinics gain other’s confidence by using a bogus malpractice insurance company says more about the abortionists than the fly-by-night scam artists," Wright said. "The bogus company takes money, but abortionists take babies’
lives, wound women’s bodies and souls, and charge for the service."

Her comments came after Jane Bovard, president of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers and owner of Red River, told state officials that Professional Liability Insurance Company, also known as Unimed, has issued malpractice insurance policies with many abortion businesses.

Vicky Conroy of Legal Action for Women told LifeNews.com that abortion practitioners rate on the high end of malpractice risk indexes, which leads to high premiums.

Others may list a different specialty, such as dermatology, to obtain less expensive premiums, low-cost insurers, as Unimed advertises itself.

Conroy said the use of fraudulent malpractice insurance adds insult to injury for women who obtain abortions, as it adds another complication to the difficult task of collecting on malpractice suits against abortion practitioners.

In her experience of representing women hurt by abortion, the abortion practitioner’s assets are in other names or in offshore accounts, making it impossible to collect, even after winning the lawsuit.

Related Sites:
Legal Action for Women (LAW) – https://www.legalactionforwomen.org
Concerned Women for America – https://www.cwfa.org