Wednesday, April 10, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
With help from modern-day "gypsies" and a crooked insurance man, the federal government is trying to put a Las Vegas chiropractor behind bars for fraud.
But the chiropractor, Thomas Shleifer, doesn't want to go based on the word of admitted "liars, frauds and cheaters."
"This is their pound of flesh that they're going to pay the government, to get this man," Shleifer's lawyer, Michael Cherry, said Tuesday.
The 39-year-old chiropractor maintains that he knew nothing about a nationwide scam to rig accidents and then seek compensation.
But the government claims that in 1990 Shleifer participated in such a scam when he allegedly claimed to have treated five people who intentionally rammed their car into a telephone pole on Lake Mead Boulevard.
"While those witnesses are liars, frauds and cheaters, their information will be accurate," prosecutor Daniel Schiess said.
The assistant U.S. attorney alleged that as a result of the Lake Mead Boulevard accident, State Farm Insurance paid $38,000 in false medical claims.
The government, with its band of "gypsies" and a salesman in tow, went to federal court Tuesday to prove its case before a jury.
If it wins, Shleifer faces up to 20 years in prison on four counts of mail fraud. It is one of many insurance fraud cases being handled by the Las Vegas U.S. attorney's office, but among only a few headed for trial.
Most of the defendants have either pleaded guilty to their roles in the scams or are participating in pretrial diversion, a program that allows defendants to erase the charge if they successfully complete probation.
The government has built its case against the chiropractor on the word of insurance salesman Larry Hogden, who has admitted to conning the industry he once worked for out of more than $1 million.
Hogden said he joined a family of "gypsies" called the Kallaos, who made a living traveling across the nation, posing as victims and tricking companies out of money. The government accused Shleifer of being part of the scheme by allegedly claiming to treat patients he never saw.
"For the next two years they went on a rampage across this country and their rampage touched Las Vegas," Schiess told the jury.
But Shleifer maintains that the government's evidence is weak: It is the chiropractor's word against admitted liars.
Federal agents planned to pose as "victims" of an alleged accident who sought treatment from Shleifer, but the plan fell apart after the chiropractor allegedly was tipped off.
Shleifer's refusal to participate in the scam was recorded, and according to his attorney, clears him of alleged wrongdoing.
"He says in the final conversation, I'm not going to do business with you," Cherry said.
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