Safelite

Safelite Group, Inc. is an American provider of automotive glass repair and replacement services, wholesale automotive glass sales, along with insurance claims management, based in Columbus, Ohio.Safelite is being sued by the state of California and faces a September 2025 trial for alleged insurance fraud.

Bud Glassman and Art Lankin started Safelite in a junkyard in Wichita, Kansas in 1947.

The company declared bankruptcy in 1997, after which time, the company became owned by its largest creditor, J.P. Morgan & Co.

In 2007, Safelite was acquired by Luxembourg based Belron, which is in turn owned by the D'Ieteren group, Belron is the world's largest vehicle glass company, providing service in over 32 countries.

Thomas Feeney became the president and CEO in 2008. In late 2021, Renee Cachillo became the President and CEO as Thomas Feeney moved into a leadership role for Belron North America. Regarding the upcoming case # 23-CIV-00025, the state of California vs. Safelite for alleged insurance fraud, here are some excerpts from official court documents: “Like its repair parts scheme, Defendants undertook this arrangement with the intent to deceive insurance carriers for financial gain and with a conscious disregard of the rights of the insurance carriers and customers. Together, these schemes resulted in tens—if not hundreds—of millions of dollars in overcharges to private insurers for claims filed in California alone; overcharges which have undoubtedly been passed on to all Californians through increased premiums.” ... and this: "Numerous Safelite executives, including Jon Cardi, Steve Miggo, Renee Cacchillo, Tim Spencer, Cindy Elliott, Ryan Trierweiler, and Tom Feeney, were involved in designing the program. However, the sanitization wipes that Safelite developed to eliminate COVID-19 from the surfaces of serviced vehicles were not sent to Safelite automobile service centers until September of 2020. On the contrary, Safelite billed insurance companies and customers for this service that it was not performing, both before and after the wipes were available as of September of 2020. Even after the wipes were made available to automobile service centers, said centers were not requesting wipes to be delivered because the service was not being performed. Even if wipes were being sent, the amount sent to centers was wholly inadequate compared to the number of jobs that Safelite billed as having had the ECTC service performed. Safelite executives knew of these problems, but did not attempt to remedy it until the latter half of January of 2021."

Safelite operates in all 50 states. The company is composed of three major business operations:

• Safelite AutoGlass, an automotive glass repair and replacement services provider
• Safelite Solutions, an insurance claims management services provider

• Economy of Ohio
• Lists of companies

• Official Website

https://glassbytes.com/2023/08/safelite-sued-for-insurance-fraud-in-california/