The NFL has issued a statement after a court charged five law firms with allegedly defrauding the league’s $1 billion concussion fund out of millions of dollars. The firms were accused in an audit by Special Masters David A. Hoffman and Jo-Ann M. Verrier of collaborating with physicians to provide false Parkinson’s disease diagnoses to athletes looking for six- to seven-figure payouts.
A court decision has now barred the law firms from continuing to participate in the NFL program after they defrauded the league’s concussion settlement fund of tens of millions of dollars through these questionable Parkinson’s disease diagnoses.
The five firms represented or performed work involving 98 former NFL players. The fund authorized 57 claims, totaling over $95 million, before tips about suspicious activity triggered an audit. The attorneys’ portion of that amounted to almost $20 million. 37 claims were still pending and will now be rejected, giving the players the opportunity to reapply, according to ABC News. Four other claims were denied or withdrawn.
The ruling merely addressed the method by which lawyers pursued their claims. It does not state that any player with a Parkinson’s diagnosis does not have the progressive illness.
The 51-page filing called it “an organized scheme … in which these law firms — and potentially others — circumvented the Settlement’s anti-fraud safeguards and laundered questionable Parkinson’s Disease diagnoses into payable claims.”
“These lawyers’ referral patterns, omission of material facts about the manufactured diagnoses, and lack of forthcoming response to scrutiny have made it impossible to tell good claims from bad,” Hoffman and Verrier wrote. “They have cast doubt on every Parkinson’s disease claim going forward, and thus the claims administrator’s ability to reliably pay only true qualifying diagnoses.”
The NFL responds to the auditors’ findings and the court’s ruling
“The NFL remains committed to ensuring that players and their families receive the benefits they deserve, and any misconduct threatens the integrity of the settlement and the prompt payment of legitimate claims,” an NFL spokesman said in a statement.
“We are pleased with the Special Masters’ Decision, which sends a clear message that fraud in the NFL concussion settlement program will not be tolerated.
“The remedies that the special masters imposed are provided for by the settlement agreement and were necessary given the scope of misconduct uncovered by the claims administrator’s investigation. We are hopeful that this decision will deter future misconduct.”