42 Sought in Alleged Auto Insurance Scam Run By One Calif. Family
After a several-year investigation, authorities today reportedly arrested about half of the 42 suspects they are seeking in a long-running insurance scam allegedly run primarily by one Southern California family. They say the group may have fraudulently collected millions of dollars from insurance companies over several decades.
The claimed scheme, allegedly headed by a 72-year-old patriarch who has previously served time in a similar fraud, involves purchasing junker cars, insuring them with multiple companies, often under identities stolen from others, and then submitting false accident claims with the help of cooperating medical and legal professionals, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Lawyers “in on the scam” allegedly helped submit claims and demand payment, the article says. However, it doesn’t name them or report that any lawyers have been arrested.
The Times says that a senior investigator for a division of Farmers Insurance unsuccessfully tried to persuade the fraud division of the California Department of Insurance to pursue the case in depth, and approached the Los Angeles Police Department several times before it agreed to do so.
“To be honest, this case is just a drop in the bucket,” LAPD Capt. Bill Williams tells the newspaper, which reports that such auto insurance fraud in California alone adds up to about $500 million annually. “But we’re hoping to send a message to the others out there that ‘we’re looking at you, and we’re going to do everything we can to get you.’ “
