Jeff Rapkin admits that he prayed for the “untimely demise” of the adjuster who examined his home after it was devastated by 2022’s Hurricane Ian. 

Rapkin, a Florida resident and father, said the adjuster told him his house would likely need to be entirely rebuilt. So Rapkin was shocked when Heritage Property and Casualty Insurance, his insurance company, sent him just $15,000, minus their deductible. 

As it turns out, the adjuster, Jordan Lee, was also shocked, as he wrote in his report that he believed the Rapkins were owed $231,368.57. Lee says he later learned dozens of his damage reports had been materially altered. 

“It was basically all of them,” Lee said. 

Assessing homes after Ian

Intense winds and heavy rainfall caused an estimated $113 billion in damages when Hurricane Ian made landfall in September 2022. The Rapkins had weathered more than a half dozen hurricanes inside their home, but Ian was different, Rapkin said.

“It felt like the hurricane was inside the house,” Rapkin said. “We couldn’t keep the windows closed.”

Video shows the steel roof being ripped from their home during the hurricane. Ian left trees on and around their house. The roof was shredded and everything inside the home was soaked. 

The Rapkins called Heritage after the storm to start the claims process. Heritage sent over Lee, a licensed adjuster since 2017, to assess the damage. After major disasters, most insurance companies use third-party firms that hire adjusters, like Lee, to help them with the thousands of claims. 

Lee says he leaves his cellphone number with homeowners after he assesses a house so that they can call him if they have any questions. His phone started ringing after Ian with angry homeowners on the other end. 

“Cussin’ me out left and right, up and down. You know, ‘how could you do this to us?'” Lee said. “It was really bad, actually. And out of the thousands of claims that I’ve handled, I’ve never had phone calls like that.”

“Allegations of systemic criminal fraud”

Two years later, whistleblowers, who are all licensed adjusters, say that after Hurricane Ian, several insurance carriers used altered reports to deceive customers and lower payouts.

An estimated 50,000 homeowners impacted by Ian are still fighting with their insurance companies to repair or rebuild their homes. The Rapkins filed a lawsuit against Heritage accusing the company of breach of contract and fraud. 

While looking into what went wrong with the Rapkin home, Lee learned a desk adjuster, who had never been to the family home, had deleted entire sections of his report, but left his name and license number on it, making it look like his work. 

It is standard procedure for field adjusters to collaborate with those back in the office to make minor edits, but Lee said that’s not what happened with the Rapkin report.

As he dug into his hurricane work, Lee saw 44 of his 46 Ian reports had been adjusted to give the policyholder less money. One estimate he wrote for about $488,000 was changed to approximately $13,000. Another was revised from about $239,000 to around $3,000. 

Lee and two other adjusters testified to Florida lawmakers on Dec. 13, 2022, about what one watchdog group called “systemic criminal fraud” by the insurance companies.

Ben Mandell, a licensed adjuster for a decade, did not work for Heritage, but said 18 of the 20 reports he wrote for another insurance company after Ian were altered. Mandell said that he and other adjusters were instructed by some of their managers to leave damage off of reports. 

“It was a deliberate scheme to do this,” Mandell said. “And it wasn’t just with one carrier doing this. This was six carriers that we discovered were doing this in the state of Florida, they all got the memo.”

The directive, according to Mandell, was that insurance companies were increasingly unwilling to replace roofs, and would only repair them. Mandell said what he was being asked to do was illegal. 

“It’s illegal because when I go out to make a damage estimate, I have to put what the damage is, not what they want the damage to be,” he said. 

Mandell said he was fired after complaining to his bosses. Now he and five other whistleblowers, including Lee, are being represented by attorney Steve Bush, who himself worked as a public adjuster for more than a decade. They were all either fired or left their jobs because of the alterations made to their reports. 

“Most people will not stand up and fight”

Some insurance companies are hoping customers will roll over and just accept the money insurers offer them, Bush said. He said he believes some insurance companies are unwilling to fork over cash for a roof replacement unless a policyholder sues.

“Most people will not stand up and fight,” Bush said. “I cannot tell you how many people come to me and say, ‘hey, what was I gonna do? I had to replace my roof.'”

Florida’s insurance market has been a risky gamble for years. After a decade of costly storms, several national carriers exited Florida. Smaller, regional carriers have stepped in, but since 2021, at least nine insurance companies in Florida have collapsed and some of the remaining ones have altered damage reports, Bush said. He says he has evidence of carriers manipulating reports in six different states, with the policyholders none the wiser that they’re not getting the money they deserved. 

There’s almost no transparency in the claims process, according to Doug Quinn, executive director of the American Policyholders Association, an advocacy group he started after his home was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

“The victims of insurer fraud are the last people to find out that they were victims of insurer fraud,” Quinn said.

Calling for change, waiting on repairs

Bush turned over what he says is evidence of insurer fraud to state investigators and Florida opened a criminal investigation. But two years after the storm, Florida has made no arrests. 

“If you really want to see change in the industry, put somebody in handcuffs,” Bush said. 

According to Quinn, insurance cases are investigated and prosecuted quickly and aggressively when it’s a policyholder or public adjuster trying to cheat the insurance industry. 

“All we are asking is that cases that are alleged to be perpetrated by the insurance carriers or the vendors that they hire are just as aggressively investigated and prosecuted when fraud is found,” Quinn said. 

Quinn said it’s difficult to know how many policyholders may have been given less money than they were owed. 

But two years after Hurricane Ian, every unrepaired home and tarp tells a story. 

At the Rapkins’ home, mold and mother nature are gnawing away at what’s left. The home’s split roof is an open wound for the family, who still have to mow the lawn and make mortgage payments on their rotting home every month. They’re also paying rent on an apartment nearby and $4,000 a year to Heritage for home insurance, even after the premiums went up.

“And can’t get another insurance company, obviously,” Rapkin said.

Rapkin originally believed there may have been an innocent mistake made, but he no longer feels that way.

“This is a con. That’s what this is,” he said. “This is, ‘make them go away at all costs. We’re not paying.'”

Heritage responds

In a statement to 60 Minutes, Heritage said it couldn’t comment on specific policyholders but aims to “pay every eligible claim” and had no intention to deceive. The company says, in its own random sample, about 42% of damage reports were revised downward and 26% were revised upward. 

Heritage says that since hurricane Ian, it has made “many reforms,” including updating its claims processing software, which it blames for not including the names of desk adjusters who altered reports. 

Sharyn Alfonsi

Sharyn Alfonsi is an award-winning correspondent for 60 Minutes.

You were never meant to hear the voice of Vladimir Kara-Murza ever again. The Russian opposition leader had warned for years that Vladimir Putin would threaten the peace of the world, and at the U.N. General Assembly in New York this past week, leaders were debating how to stop Putin in Ukraine without a world war. Putin poisoned Kara-Murza twice, then sent him to die in prison. But last month, he was traded for a prize that Putin could not resist. Why does the Russian dictator still fear Vladimir Kara-Murza? Here’s why.

Vladimir Kara-Murza: I think Russia deserves so much better than to live under a corrupt, repressive criminal, archaic KGB-led dictatorship. But change is not gonna happen unless we do something to make it happen. 

Scott Pelley: And this is worth your life?

Vladimir Kara-Murza: I mean, look, there were people who stood up to Apartheid in South Africa. There were people who stood up to the Communist regime in the Soviet Union. There were people who stood up to the Nazi regime in Germany. There are causes larger than ourselves. And to me, the cause of a free, peaceful, civilized, and democratic Russia is certainly much larger than I could ever be.

He has fought for that cause from the start of Putin’s 25-years in power. He’s a Pulitzer prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post and Cambridge educated historian. Last year, 43-year-old Kara-Murza was tried for treason after denouncing Putin’s war on Ukraine.

Vladimir Kara-Murza: We tried to warn the world. We tried to shout. We tried to get the message out that this regime is dangerous, that this man is dangerous, that even if you don’t care about what happens to us in Russia it’s gonna come to you sooner or later.

Scott Pelley: What is it like living in Russia today? 

Vladimir Kara-Murza: Anybody who’s a genuine opponent of Putin is either in exile in prison or dead. You have to think about even what you talk to your kids about at home because children whose families are against this war in Ukraine would, for example, draw anti-war images in school and their parents would get visits from the police or they would be put in prison. You have to think about that as well if you live in Russia today.

Vladimir Kara-Murza has been high on Putin’s list since 2012 when he and the late Sen. John McCain fought for the so-called Magnitsky Act. The U.S. law is named for a man murdered by Putin’s police. The Magnitsky Act seized the overseas assets of more than 60 people who abused human rights in Russia. Kara-Murza says this is why he was poisoned by Kremlin assassins.

Vladimir Kara-Murza: I was in was in a coma for about a month the first time this happened in May of 2015 with a multiple organ failure. And as the doctors in Moscow were telling my wife, with about a 5% chance to survive. And after I came out of that coma, despite all the odds, I’ve literally had to learn everything new.

Scott Pelley: You had to learn to walk again.

Vladimir Kara-Murza: Yeah–

Scott Pelley: You had to learn to eat again.

Vladimir Kara-Murza: It’s amazing how fast the human body just loses everything, just loses all the strength and you just have to start anew.

Two years later, he was poisoned again. This time, 2017, he rehabbed in the U.S. His wife and three children live in the states and Kara-Murza has permanent resident status. But once he recovered, he returned to Russia.

Scott Pelley: You were safe.

Vladimir Kara-Murza: How could I not go back to Russia? I am a Russian politician. A politician has to be in their own country. How could I call on my fellow citizens and my fellow Russians to stand up and oppose this dictatorship if I myself was too scared to do it? How is that possible?

Last year, after his treason conviction, he was hit with the longest sentence ever for a political prisoner. The judge in the case had been among the first officials ever sanctioned by the Magnitsky Act.

Scott Pelley: And when you heard the sentence, 25 years, you thought what?

Vladimir Kara-Murza: So, frankly I thought it’s a job well done.

Scott Pelley: A job well done?

Vladimir Kara-Murza: Well, on my part, yes. I think that 25 year sentence was frankly, a recognition that what we did over all those years mattered, that the Magnitsky Act mattered, that public opposition to the war in Ukraine mattered.

He was sent to Siberia and solitary confinement.

Vladimir Kara-Murza: In the two and a half years I’ve spent in Russian prison, I was only able to once call my wife on the phone, and only twice I was able to speak on the phone to our three kids. It was a 15-minute call, so five minutes per child. And as my wife later told me, she was standing there with a stopwatch to make sure that each of our kids doesn’t get more than five minutes so that everybody could have an opportunity to speak with Dad.

Scott Pelley: Were you sitting in that cell thinking, “I’m gonna get outta here one day”?

Vladimir Kara-Murza: No, to answer your question honestly, I did not believe I would ever get out. And so, what happened– on August 1st, the only way I can describe that is a miracle. 

The miracle was in the making for more than a year. Negotiations began over Americans held by Putin, which, eventually, included Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. But over the months, the deal grew to involve seven countries.

Jake Sullivan: We don’t trust the Russians on anything. They lied about the war in Ukraine. They make a regular practice of lying and obfuscating. But one thing they have shown over time is when they say they’re gonna do an exchange, they do the exchange.

At the center of the negotiations was Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security advisor.

Jake Sullivan: None of this happens overnight. None of it’s straightforward. There’s gonna be twists and turns. There’s gonna be false starts. And so, persistence, relentlessness, that’s part of the name of the game of actually securing the release of these Americans.

But there was only one thing Putin wanted and that would be hard, maybe impossible, for the man who held the key, the leader of Germany.

Jake Sullivan: Olaf Scholz was absolutely critical. Without him, this would not have happened. Because a central piece of the puzzle was the release of a Russian agent named Vadim Krasikov. Without Krasikov, there is no deal. 

But Krasikov is a notorious assassin and friend of Putin. In 2019, he was sent to Germany to kill an enemy of the Kremlin. The daytime murder, in the middle of Berlin, was infamous. 

Scott Pelley: What was Scholz’s dilemma?

Jake Sullivan: Being able to look his people in the eye and say, “We are releasing someone who has committed a grievous crime on German soil. And therefore, I can deliver something for the people of Germany.” And that’s why we ended up thinking through enlarging the problem, not just trying to bring out Americans, but of course bring out some German citizens as well. And then, the critical move of being able to say to the German people, the American people, and the world, “We are also getting Russian Freedom Fighters out,” including people like Vladimir Kara-Murza.

That was the fire-side pitch to the German leader, but Krasikov had served only three years of a life sentence. Scholz’s fractious coalition government faced election challenges. And the easy answer was “no.”

Scott Pelley: In the end, you had to do a deal with the devil.

Olaf Scholz: I made a deal with the Russian president.

In Berlin, Chancellor Scholz told us he was brought to “yes” by a man he considered a friend. 

Olaf Scholz: It is not an easy decision. And I discussed with many people in my government, and especially with Joe Biden, who asked me to help. And my view was that this is something which we could do. Well-prepared and if we do it on a large scale. 

Jake Sullivan: He said, and I remember it very vividly, on the phone with President Biden, “For you, Joe, I will do this.”

Vladimir Kara-Murza: A large group of officers burst into my cell. I have no idea what’s happening. It’s the middle of the night. It’s dark. And they tell me I have ten minutes to get up and get ready. And at this moment, I’m absolutely certain that I’m gonna be led out and be executed. 

But instead of executed, on August 1st, eight Russian criminals and spies were traded for several Germans, the three Americans, and eight Russian dissidents. As he stepped off the plane in Turkey, Kara-Murza’s captors had parting advice.

Vladimir Kara-Murza: He turned to me and said, “Be careful about what you eat. You know how these things happen.” 

Scott Pelley: He was telling you, you might be poisoned again, even though you’re free?

Vladimir Kara-Murza: Well, look, we know that attacks on opponents of the Kremlin have happened far beyond the borders of Russia.

The next voice Kara-Murza heard spoke not of fear but of freedom. 

Vladimir Kara-Murza: At that moment a lady diplomat came up to me with a cell phone and she says, “Are you Mr. Kara-Murza?” I said, “Yes.” And she gives me the phone and says, “I’m from the American embassy in Ankara. The president of the United States is on the line.”

President Biden (on call): You’ve been wrongfully detained for a long time and we’re glad you’re home.

With President Biden, was Kara-Murza’s family. 

Vladimir Kara-Murza (on call): You’ve done a wonderful thing by saving so many people. I think there are 16 of us on the plane. I don’t think there are many things more important than saving human lives. 

Vladimir Kara-Murza: It felt surreal, it felt more emotional than I had ever felt at any point in my life.

There had been many emotions for Jake Sullivan who, for years, could tell desperate families only to keep waiting.

Jake Sullivan (in briefing room): And most of the time, as you can imagine, those are tough conversations. But not today. Today, excuse me, today was a very good day.

Vladimir Kara-Murza: It’s one thing to speak about protecting freedom or protecting human rights. But it’s quite another thing to actually do something to protect them. And whatever else President Biden and Chancellor Scholz will be remembered for years from now, they will be remembered for this.

Scott Pelley: Vladimir Kara-Murza told us he quoted a Jewish scripture to you: “He who saves one life saves the entire world.”

Olaf Scholz: It was very nice to hear it, to be very honest with you. On the other hand, I don’t feel that great. I did what I thought is the right thing to do.

Scott Pelley: We have traveled quite a bit through Ukraine. We have seen the destroyed hospitals. We have seen the shattered schools. We have seen the mass graves. Vladimir Putin has attacked a country that meant him no harm, and I wonder if you can explain why.

Vladimir Kara-Murza: Because that is what dictators do. Once they consolidate, they control domestically. Once they eliminate and destroy all the opposition at home, they start moving against others. This has always happened in Russia. whether under the czars, under the Soviets, or now under Vladimir Putin.

Scott Pelley: Will Putin try to kill you again?

Vladimir Kara-Murza: Look, we know what it entails to be in opposition to Vladimir Putin. He’s not just a dictator. He’s not just an authoritarian leader. He’s not just a strongman. He is a murderer. That man is a murderer.

Vladimir Kara-Murza remains in the U.S. with his family. He told us, in solitary confinement, he learned there’s no life without hope– true for those behind bars and for his imprisoned country. 

Vladimir Kara-Murza: The amazing fact and the fact that frankly makes me proud of Russia is that there are thousands of people in Russia who have publicly spoken out against Putin’s regime, who have publicly spoken out against the war in Ukraine even at the cost of personal freedom. And I hope that when people in the West, that when people in the United States, when people in the free world at large think about Russia they will remember not only the aggressors and the war criminals who are sitting in the Kremlin but also those who are standing up to them because we are Russians too. 

Produced by Maria Gavrilovic and Alex Ortiz. Broadcast associate, Michelle Karim. Edited by April Wilson.

Scott Pelley

Scott Pelley, one of the most experienced and awarded journalists today, has been reporting stories for 60 Minutes since 2004. The 2024-25 season is his 21st on the broadcast. Scott has won half of all major awards earned by 60 Minutes during his tenure at the venerable CBS newsmagazine.

Lengthy, complex diplomatic talks leading up to the largest prisoner exchange since the Cold War came down to one sticking point: Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted the release of notorious assassin Vadim Krasikov, who had been convicted of murder in Germany. 

The negotiations ahead of the August deal were more than a year in the making. They began over Americans held by Putin, but over the months, the deal grew to involve Russian dissidents. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who was at the center of negotiations, said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was critical to the deal.

“Without him, this would not have happened. Because a central piece of the puzzle was the release of a Russian agent named Vadim Krasikov. Without Krasikov, there is no deal,” Sullivan said. 

Who is Vadim Krasikov?

Krasikov was convicted in 2021 of the 2019 murder of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a Georgian citizen of Chechen descent in Berlin. Khangoshvili was a Chechen rebel who had fought Russian troops in Chechnya. 

Krasikov was sentenced to life in prison in Germany. 

In November 2023, Russia rejected a different prisoner swap offer, saying that Krasikov must be part of any trade.

Making the 2024 prisoner swap with Russia happen

Sullivan knew a deal wouldn’t happen overnight.

“None of it’s straightforward. There’s going to be twists and turns. There’s going to be false starts,” he said. “Persistence, relentlessness, that’s part of the name of the game of actually securing the release of these Americans.”

Sullivan said Scholz’s dilemma was being able to look his people in the eye and say, “We are releasing someone who has committed a grievous crime on German soil. And therefore, I can deliver something for the people of Germany.” 

So the deal was broadened. 

“That’s why we ended up thinking through enlarging the problem, not just trying to bring out Americans, but of course bring out some German citizens as well,” Sullivan said. “And then, the critical move of being able to say to the German people, the American people, and the world, ‘We are also getting Russian Freedom Fighters out,’ including people like Vladimir Kara-Murza.”

Scholz said his long friendship with President Biden influenced his decision to release Krasikov.

“It is not an easy decision. And I discussed it with many people in my government, and especially with Joe Biden, who asked me to help,” Scholz said. “And my view was that this is something which we could do.”

Sullivan remembers the moment Scholz said he would try to make a deal. 

“He said, and I remember it very vividly, on the phone with President Biden, ‘For you, Joe, I will do this,'” Sullivan said. 

Prisoners released

On Aug. 1, eight convicted Russian criminals and spies were traded for several Germans, three Americans and eight Russian dissidents, including Putin critic Kara-Murza, who’d been sentenced to 25 years in Russia. 

“You know, it’s one thing to speak about protecting freedom or protecting human rights,” Kara-Murza said, “but it’s quite another thing to actually do something to protect them. And whatever else President Biden and Chancellor Scholz will be remembered for years from now, they will be remembered for this.”

Kara-Murza told 60 Minutes he quoted Jewish scripture to Scholz after his release:  “He who saves one life saves the entire world.”

“It was very nice to hear it, to be very honest with you,” Scholz said. “On the other hand, I don’t feel that great. I did what I thought is the right thing to do.”

Scott Pelley

Scott Pelley, one of the most experienced and awarded journalists today, has been reporting stories for 60 Minutes since 2004. The 2024-25 season is his 21st on the broadcast. Scott has won half of all major awards earned by 60 Minutes during his tenure at the venerable CBS newsmagazine.