'The View' co-host Sunny Hostin issues scathing statement on insurance fraud allegations against her husband
"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin issued a statement about the insurance fraud allegations against her husband on Tuesday, arguing that the company who filed the lawsuit was known for frivolous claims.
Hostin provided a statement to Entertainment Weekly and said the company, American Transit Insurance Co., a New York-based commercial auto insurance provider that insures Uber, Lyft and taxi companies in the state, filed the lawsuit "to avoid paying for medical and surgical procedures for people it insured who were in pain."
"This company has a history of filing frivolous claims, has been investigated by New York State and has been sued by Uber Technologies," she added.
Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Emmanuel "Manny" Hostin and his practice, Hostin Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine, were named among more than 180 defendants in a major federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, case filed in the Eastern District of New York on Dec. 17.
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"The View" co-host also said, as reported by Entertainment Weekly, that American Transit is on the verge of bankruptcy.
Emmanuel Hostin in particular is accused of receiving kickbacks by "performing surgery and fraudulently billing" American Transit, according to the lawsuit.
It cites at least two of Hostin's patients who were allegedly treated in January 2023 following involvement in "low-impact" collisions that caused only minimal damage. Despite experiencing "no more than soft-tissue injuries," both received arthroscopic surgery, the lawsuit said.
Sunny Hostin's statement added that the company "used my celebrity status to start a disgusting media smear campaign against my husband."
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"We have put American Transit on notice and will file a five-million-dollar counter lawsuit for their defamatory claims, an amount that is likely to increase as the reputational damage that American Transit has intentionally caused is difficult to quantify at this time," Hostin's statement continued, demanding American transit "withdraw these false allegations, pay my husband what he is owed and issue a public apology."
The situation has been privately discussed at "The View," sources told Fox News Digital. Hostin has so far not addressed the lawsuit on air.
"It's been discussed internally," one source said of the situation at the ABC talk show, adding, "But no one is sure what to make of it."
The lawsuit being filed under RICO is a strategy that legal experts told Fox News Digital is designed to have a chilling effect on behavior. It's also one that risks entangling defendants such as Hostin in years of complex court proceedings—and potentially saddling them with massive payouts as a result.
Fox News' Breanne Deppisch, Joseph Wulfsohn, David Rutz and Brian Flood contributed to this report.