Seven people are indicted for allegedly staging dozens of car accidents in a million dollar insurance fraud scheme
Four out of of seven defendants were arrested on federal charges.
The indictment charges Juan Ortiz Rivas, 38, of Ceres; Oscar Diaz Landa, 45, of San Jose; Victor Hugo Soriano-Villafan, 25, of Modesto; Liobigildo Vargas, 45, of Turlock; Juan Marquez Cadenas, 29, of Patterson; Cristopher Santiago Sanchez-Becerra, 31, of Stockton; and, Alfonso Apu, 47, of Modesto with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and mail fraud.
Landa, Sanchez-Becerra, and Apu were arrested at their residences, and Vargas was arrested at his business Vargas Auto Body in Turlock.
Soriano-Villafan was arrested last week in Las Vegas and arraigned in U.S. District Court in Fresno.
The men used different vehicles – registering them with the DMV and obtaining insurance policies, then they enticed others to help them, by allowing their vehicles be to hit and then filing claims.
The defendants also would offer to repair the cars at a designated shop – for less than the insurance company would pay on the damaged vehicle, and pocketing the rest.
This went on from October of 2011 until August of 2014, racking up 1.2 million dollars in profits for the ring.
This case is the product of an investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the California Department of Insurance, Fraud Division.
Assistant United States Attorneys Patrick R. Delahunty and Henry Z. Carbajal III are prosecuting the case.
If convicted, the men each face up to 20 years in prison, and a $250-thousand dollars in fine.
