‘The View’ co-host’s husband accused of insurance fraud

Emmanuel “Manny” Hostin, the husband of “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin, has been named in what has been called “a major RICO case” by multiple media outlets.

Hostin and his practice, Hostin Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine, were named in a major RICO case among nearly 200 other defendants.

The View star and legal expert Sunny Hostin’s husband, Dr. Emmanuel “Manny” Hostin, is among the nearly 200 people named in a new federal lawsuit that accuses the New York City doctor of insurance fraud.

According to court documents obtained by Entertainment Weekly, the orthopaedic surgeon — owner of his Hostin Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine practice, established in 2006 — is individually accused in the December suit of having “knowingly provided fraudulent medical and other healthcare services including arthroscopic surgeries to Covered Persons through Hostin Orthopaedics that he purportedly performed,” and allegedly fraudulently billed insurance company “American Transit through each of those entities in exchange for kickbacks and/or other compensation which were disguised as dividends or other cash distributions,” the 698-page complaint reads.

American Transit, the plaintiff in the suit, is an insurance company that primarily works with Uber, Lyft, and taxi drivers. The company claims in the complaint that insurance fraud is “rampant” and “endemic to the New York State” — where Dr. Hostin practices at his Manhattan medical office — due to its No-Fault (or Personal Injury Protection) law.

According to a government-provided description, No-Fault is “designed to pay promptly, regardless of who is at fault or whether there was any negligence, for economic losses (meaning medical/health expenses, lost earnings, and certain other reasonable and necessary expenses related to injuries sustained), up to $50,000 per person (‘basic No-Fault coverage’), to the driver and all passengers injured in your car as well as any pedestrians injured by your car, because of its use or operation in New York State.”

Representatives for Sunny, Manny, and American Transit did not respond to EW’s request for comment.

In a statement to the Daily Mail, which first broke news of the suit against Hostin and others, Dr. Hostin’s attorney, Daniel Thwaites, said that his client “denies each and every allegation,” and called the suit a “blanket, scattershot, meritless lawsuit by a near-bankrupt insurance carrier.”

Thwaites said the filing is also “meant to intimidate and harass doctors from collecting for care given to American Transit insureds and their passengers,” while also pointing out Dr. Hostin’s “impeccable” record in the field.

“American Transit has rushed into the lawsuit without ever conducting an examination of Dr. Hostin or expressing any concerns to his lawyers,” Thwaites continued. “The real story here is about an insurance carrier abusing the legal system to limit and restrict health care benefits to its insureds and their passengers, and write off its proper obligations.”

In a separate statement to the publication, a representative for American Transit said: “These substantial possible no-fault recoveries can incentivize providers with ill intent to over-diagnose, over-treat, and over-bill to recover the most money for themselves.”

Sunny and Manny married in 1998, two years after meeting at a bagel shop following a church service they both attended in Maryland. The couple shares two children, Paloma and Gabriel — all of whom Sunny regularly speaks about from her post at The View‘s Hot Topics table.

Manny even appeared on Sunny birthday episode in 2023 — a guest spot that later made headlines after the panelist revealed in a February 2024 interview on the Behind the Table podcast that her husband got angry while watching from the audience as his wife had an interaction with recording artist Doug E. Fresh.

“I don’t know if you remember, during my birthday show when we had the 50 years of hip-hop, Doug E. Fresh came up to me and, in my husband’s view, danced a little too close to me,” Sunny told View producer Brian Teta at the time, in response to a fan question asking about how Sunny’s husband felt about her affinity for actor Idris Elba. “I only looked into the audience and took one look at his face … and scooted over so quickly. I didn’t even think I had it in me to move that quickly. We got into the car, and he said, ‘What the bleep was that?’”