When it comes to the California department of insurance, don’t poke the bear.
That is the lesson three individuals in Los Angeles learned recently when they were sentenced to jail time for an insurance fraud scheme in which they staged attacks on high-end vehicles by having a person dress up in a bear costume – then pretending that person was an actual bear.
The plan unraveled after the four defendants in the case filed an insurance claim in 2024 claiming that the bear had damaged a 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost, going so far as to provide a video of the alleged attack inside the car parked at Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino mountains.
It turned out that the ursine figure in the video was, in fact, a human.
“What may have looked unbelievable turned out to be exactly that – and now those responsible are being held accountable,” the state’s insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, stated in a press release after the sentencing on Thursday. “My department’s investigators uncovered the facts, exposed this scam and helped bring these defendants to justice.
“Insurance fraud is a serious crime that drives up costs for consumers, and no scheme is too outrageous for us to investigate.”
The video in question showed the costumed person enter the vehicle and rummage through it in less-than-convincing fashion.
Investigators then discovered two additional claims of a person performing the same act in two more vehicles, each Mercedeses.
As part of the investigation, the state’s insurance department asked a California department of fish and wildlife biologist to review the videos. The scientist determined that “it was clearly a human in a bear suit”, a press release at the time stated.
Detectives found the bear costume seen in the video while executing a search warrant on the home of one of the suspects in the case.
Alfiya Zuckerman, 39; Ruben Tamrazian, 26; and Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32, all pleaded no contest to felony insurance fraud, and they were each sentenced to 180 days in jail.
Zuckerman and Tamrazian were each ordered to pay more than $52,000 in restitution. Muradkhanyan’s restitution amount was not immediately determined.
A fourth suspect, Ararat Chirkinian, 39, is scheduled to return to court in September for a preliminary hearing.
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