Juan Ortiz Rivas, Insurance Fraud, California 2015

State: California
Category: Fraud &#038; Financial Crimes
Source: <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/seven-indicted-allegedly-staging-dozens-car-accidents-12-million-insurance-fraud-scheme" style="color:#cc0000;" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">DOJ Press Release ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Â Ã¢â‚¬â€

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Fresno, California – $1.2 Million Insurance Scam Unraveled

Four of seven defendants were arrested today on federal charges related to their alleged involvement in a scheme that defrauded insurance companies of at least $1.2 million by staging car crashes and submitting false insurance claims.

A federal grand jury returned the sealed indictment on August 27, 2015, which was unsealed after the arrests today.

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 this morning 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.

According to court documents, from October 2011 until August 2014, the defendants conspired to stage dozens of car accidents and submit false claims seeking compensation for the damage caused by the staged accidents. In each staged accident, the defendants damaged two or three vehicles and caused about $5,000 to $10,000 of damage to each vehicle.

Each defendant faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count of the indictment. If convicted, they will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.

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