The View co-host Sunny Hostin's husband named in RICO lawsuit alleging 'fraudulent medical services'

Emmanuel “Manny” Hostin, husband of ABC’s The View co-host Sunny Hostin, is one of 200 defendants who were named in a new RICO case filed in New York City. According to The Daily Mail, Hostin and the other defendants have been accused of taking kickbacks by submitting fraudulent bills to an insurance company that insures cab companies as well as Uber and Lyft drivers.

The suit alleges “Hostin knowingly provided fraudulent medical and other healthcare services including arthroscopic surgeries,” and then billed American Transit insurance “in exchange for kickbacks and/or other compensation which were disguised as dividends or other cash distributions.” Hostin’s attorney, Daniel Thwaites, told the outlet in a statement that his client “denies each and every allegation” and called the suit a “blanket, scattershot, meritless lawsuit by a near-bankrupt insurance carrier.”

Thwaites also accused the insurance company of “abusing the legal system” in an effort to “restrict health care benefits to its insureds and their passengers and write off its proper obligations.” He added that the suit “Is meant to intimidate and harass doctors from collecting for care given to American Transit insureds and their passengers. American Transit has rushed into the lawsuit without ever conducting an examination of Dr. Hostin or expressing any concerns to his lawyers.”

Sunny Hostin is an attorney who was previously a federal prosecutor and is often a legal correspondent and analyst for the network. A clip from “The View” was circulating on social media following news of the suit showing Sunny Hostin discussing her husband’s work, including his attempts to recover payment from health insurance companies by suing them. She stated in the clip “[He] operates on someone even though they don’t have insurance and then has to sue health insurance companies to get paid for the work that he’s been trained his whole life to do.” This conversation was in the context of the recent murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.