‘The View’ host’s husband named in sprawling insurance fraud case that will likely drag on for years to trial

Husband Host of “View”. Sunny Hostin and 200 co-defendants charged with insurance fraud in a sprawling $459 million lawsuit in New York could end up in court for years, according to legal experts.

Among the dozens of doctors and medical staff is Emmanuel “Manny” Hostin, an orthopedic surgeon named in federal lawsuit, a request filed last month by American Transit Insurance Co., a New York-based commercial auto insurance company that insures Uber, Lyft and taxi companies in the state. The lawsuit states that Hostin, in particular, is accused of receiving bribes through “execution of operations and fraudulent billing” to American Transit.

He cites at least two of Hostin’s patients who were allegedly treated in January 2023 after being involved in “low impact” collisions that caused only minimal damage. The lawsuit states that despite suffering “only soft tissue injuries,” they both underwent arthroscopic surgery.

The lawsuit was filed under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act in the Eastern District of New York. According to Fox News Digital legal experts, this strategy is intended to have a chilling effect on behavior. It also threatens to embroil defendants like Hostin in years of complex litigation and potentially burden them with hefty payouts.

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This is because RICO laws – adopted in the 1970s as an attempt to crack down on mob and other organized crime – allow plaintiffs to obtain “triple damages,” or damages that are three times the amount of actual or compensatory damages.

In the American Transit case, the figure is in the range of $459 million or more – three times the amount of compensatory damages, which amount to $153 million.

Intimidating factor, chilling effect

Often, these types of lawsuits are pursued with a specific strategy in mind, said Michael Mears, a law professor at John Marshall Law School who specializes in criminal law and RICO cases.

“There is a lot more going on with the application of the RICO statute than just seeking damages,” Mears said in an interview on Fox News Digital. “It’s a behavioral change. Changing attitudes. Sometimes changing the way we do business.”

RICO civil lawsuits are sometimes used as a means to force people or stop certain behaviors and oppressive practices. In Hostin’s case, this allegedly involves doctors and outpatient services habitually overbilling or overcharging patients.

In the New York case, for example, “there are doctors who really don’t want to be called criminals,” Mears said. “The charges themselves (under the) civil RICO statute can be very intimidating and a very powerful tool” to deter inappropriate practices.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be a litany of actions in the courtroom regarding the defendants named in the American Transit lawsuit, including Hostin.

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Legal experts told Fox News Digital that civil RICO cases in today’s world are a long game that often take years, not months, to resolve in court.

Plaintiffs in civil RICO cases are often insurance companies that accuse a group of people of fraud, Jeffrey Grell, a lawyer specializing in RICO litigation, told Fox News Digital.

In American Transit’s lawsuit, the insurer accuses Hostin and dozens of other doctors of abusing New York’s no-fault law to artificially inflate or overbill for unnecessary medical procedures and profit from kickbacks.

No-fault laws require companies like American Transit to cover “reasonably incurred” health care expenses resulting from injuries suffered by insured passengers. However, the low burden of proof under no-fault laws also means they are particularly vulnerable to exploitation by doctors.

American Transit alleges that Hostin and other defendants abused New York’s no-fault laws by billing “hundreds of millions” of dollars in fraudulent payments between 2009 and 2024.

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Complicated matters, long time frames

Civil RICO cases are often long and difficult matters for each party.

In fact, the 698-page lawsuit filed by American Transit is one of the largest civil RICO cases ever brought in New York – all but ensuring a lengthy resolution process for Hostin and the other defendants.

Courts “are going to look at the individual claims made against each defendant to determine all of the elements of a RICO claim, and all of the elements of a RICO claim are quite complicated,” Grell said.

Many, if not all, defendants will attempt to have their cases dismissed before an investigation begins, a preliminary process that in itself can take more than a year. It is common for defendants to file multiple, related motions in an attempt to get the court to grant their motion to dismiss, further extending the drawn-out time frame.

Once motions to dismiss are resolved, the discovery process begins. This process can be lengthy and complex because it involves each person named in the lawsuit, and each defendant’s attorney will seek to demonstrate that his or her client individually does not meet the elements of a RICO case.

“Like any other civil lawsuit, the RICO statute allows for depositions,” Mears said of the time frames of RICO cases. “They allow the collection of documents. They allow the discovery of filler entries.”

Ultimately, it’s a process that “opens up the entire avenue of finding out what’s going on in an organization — whether it’s a doctor’s office, a hospital, a physician group,” he said, and that allows plaintiffs to order discovery and collection of documents from anyone named.

This may drag the case out even longer.

“In other words, the discovery process (in RICO cases) can be very intimidating,” Mears said. “It’s a long game.”

For her part, Sunny Hostin was critical of her husband’s work as a doctor while co-hosting “The View.”

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Recently, Hostin referenced his work in a discussion about health insurance after a homicide UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York.

“Doctors also suffer from large corporations, doctors who want to do good like my husband,” Hostin said in the segment. She added that her husband, as an orthopedic surgeon, “operates on someone even if they don’t have insurance and then has to sue the insurance companies to get paid for a job he has been trained to do his whole life.” “

According to the Daily Mail, Hostin’s lawyers have previously denied all allegations against him and described his filing of a “general, scattered and meritless lawsuit brought by a nearly bankrupt insurance company.”

They did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the allegations or any timeline provided for the RICO proceedings.