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March 3, 2010, Cover Stories, Regulations/Legal

In League with the Angel of Death

By Kerry Pechter   Wed, Feb 17, 2010

Lawsuits filed in Rhode Island, New York and Illinois shed light on the sinister, multi-million-dollar strategy of using the dying as fronts to exploit variable annuity loopholes.

A lawyer in league with the Angel of Death, Joseph Caramadre prospected for variable annuity clients among hospice residents and the gravely ill. He paid sick people or couples as much as $10,000 just to put their name on an annuity contract.

For some 15 years, in fact, the prominent Rhode Island attorney, whose family was named the state's “First Family of Giving” in 2009 for its generosity to the United Way and other causes, quietly helped initiate dozens of these “stranger-originated annuity transactions,” or STATs.


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