Legal expert and co-host of “The View” Sunny Hostin, has pushed back on allegations made in a lawsuit against her husband alleging that he defrauded an insurance company.
In a statement published by Entertainment Weekly, Sunny Hostin said American Transit – the insurance group who filed the lawsuit and the plaintiff in the case – was trying “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.”
As previously reported by IJR, citing Fox News, Sunny Hostin’s husband, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Emmanuel “Manny” Hostin is one of 200 defendants named in one of the largest RICO cases in the history of New York state.
Entertainment Weekly further reported Dr. Emmanuel Hostin has been the owner of Hostin Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine in Manhattan since 2006.
American Transit alleges Dr. Emmanuel Hostin “knowingly provided fraudulent medical and other healthcare services including arthroscopic surgeries to Covered Persons through Hostin Orthopaedics” before billing the insurance group for the cost. The 698-page lawsuit further alleges Dr. Emmanuel Hostin carried out this fraud “in exchange for kickbacks and/or other compensation which were disguised as dividends or other cash distributions.”
In response to the lawsuit, Sunny Hostin said the insurance group was facing “bankruptcy” and using her celebrity status to launch a smear campaign against her husband, alleging the “harassment” her and her family are enduring is an attempt by American Transit to “not pay its bills.”
“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,” Sunny Hostin said in her statement.
Sunny Hostin further demanded that American Transit “withdraw these false allegations, pay my husband what he is owed and issue a public apology.”
“Insurance companies like American Transit make an already broken healthcare system nearly impossible for Americans to navigate and get good healthcare by engaging in despicable tactics like harassing doctors,” Hostin said, “Let me be clear, where I come from, American Transit will receive a PhD from FAFO University.”
“FAFO” stands for “f*** around and find out.”
Dr. Hostin’s attorney, Daniel Thwaites, said in a statement to the Daily Mail that his client denies any wrongdoing, further claiming the lawsuit was a ploy to intimidate doctors “from collecting for care given to American Transit insureds and their passengers.”
