The scheme had loads of shifting components, however was surprisingly easy.
The Inland Empire Car Insurance coverage Activity Drive, which has been investigating the plot for almost two years, mentioned it unfolded like this: Andre Angelo Reyes, 36, allegedly bought site visitors collision experiences that contained private data of drivers concerned in crashes throughout Southern California from Rosa Isela Santistevan, a 55-year-old California Freeway Patrol worker.
Investigators say Reyes would give the paperwork to a 3rd particular person, Esmeralda Parga, 26, who would name the drivers and faux to be from their insurance coverage firm. She would allegedly coordinate for his or her broken automobiles to be taken to a selected restore heart, CA Collision, whose proprietor, Anthony Gomez, 35, was additionally in on the scheme, authorities mentioned.
Then the restore store would contact the insurance coverage corporations and demand money to have the automobiles launched, authorities mentioned.
Investigators allege the scheme resulted in 19 fraudulent claims leading to a lack of greater than $353,000 to insurance coverage corporations. This month, a complete of 15 folks concerned within the scheme, together with Reyes, of Corona; Santistevan, of Irvine; Parga, of Pomona; and Gomez, of Jurupa Valley, had been charged with insurance coverage fraud, grand theft by trick and false impersonation, state investigators wrote in a press launch. The others had been:
- Ezequiel Baltazar Orozco, 30, of Los Angeles
- Antonio Terrazas Perez Jr., 19, of Los Angeles
- Erika Garcia, 31, of Los Angeles
- Israel Avila Sandoval, 45, of Pomona
- Luis Alberto Ramirez Jr., 32, of San Bernardino
- Robert Arzac, 49, of West Covina
- Antonio Ramirez Perez, 44, of Los Angeles
- Brian Anthony Lopez, 25, of Anaheim
- Emily Marie Boatman, 26, of Ontario
- Ricardo Parga Jr., 23, of Pomona
- Steven Anthony Alfaro, 38, of Buena Park
The Inland Empire Car Insurance coverage Activity Drive, which consists of representatives from the California Division of Insurance coverage, the California Freeway Patrol, the San Bernardino County district legal professional’s workplace and the Riverside County district legal professional’s workplace, launched its investigation in November 2022 after it was found that a CHP worker was apparently promoting site visitors collision experiences.
Investigators say the scheme started after Reyes donated to a number of CHP occasions and events and befriended Santistevan and different CHP workers.
Whereas executing search warrants on varied properties through the investigation, authorities mentioned they discovered proof, together with a video, of one other sort of insurance coverage fraud known as “collusive collisions,” by which members deliberately crash automobiles to gather insurance coverage funds.
The video confirmed somebody driving a Polaris Slingshot by means of a darkened highway at evening, blasting hip-hop music. The video cuts to somebody doing donuts within the automobile whereas one other particular person movies it. The subsequent scene exhibits a BMW slamming into the entrance of the Slingshot. The person filming the crash says, “Oops.”
Authorities mentioned the people concerned within the rip-off claimed the injury resulted from two separate crashes that occurred on a freeway.
“And that’s simply how we do it,” the unidentified man says within the video as the 2 automobiles are being loaded onto a tow truck. “Two birds killed in a single shot.”
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