21 Busted for Connection to L.A. Fraud Ring

21 suspects have been arrested and three more warrants are pending after a 2009 search warrant from an unrelated case sparked a two-year investigation revealing a major fraud ring in the great Los Angeles area.

According to the California Department of Insurance, a search warrant was served on September 4^th, 2009 for the residence of 38-year-old Norberto De Jesus Rivas, who was in custody for unrelated charges. During the execution of the warrant, evidence of identity theft and insurance fraud was uncovered and seized, which led to the discovery that Rivas and co-conspirator 62-year-old Albert Lee Ingram who operated Metropolitan Health Care Center and Wilshire Health-Care Centre were running a scheme that stole more than $1 million dollars from such insurance companies as 21^st Century (AIG), Esurance and State Farm.

Supposedly, Rivas filed multiple insurance claims by posing as a claimant or as a relative of the claimant while Ingram created fraudulent medical reports and invoices for treatment that was never received by claimants or for claimants that didn’t even exist. 

“He [Rivas] corresponded directly with insurance companies by letter or telephone to avoid detection. Many of the collisions were completely fabricated for the purpose of defrauding insurance companies. Other collision claims with simple property damage, were enhanced by Rivas in order to obtain larger bodily injury settlements.”

Apparently, in many instances the “real” claimants in the fake collisions were involved in the fraud scheme from the beginning and then solicited to Rivas and Ingram to make more money in which they received a cut from the bodily injury settlements.

The investigation that lead to the arrests appeared to be a joint effort of local, state and federal law enforcement officials.  The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, Auto Insurance Fraud Unit will be handling the prosecution. A full list of those involved in the scheme and details of their arrests can be found here.