Owners of Majestic Repair Shop Plead Guilty

Recently we brought you the story of a third police officer who was convicted of helping out with an auto repair company’s fraud scheme. The two brothers who owned that repair shop, Majestic Auto Repair, have now pled guilty as well. 

According to The Baltimore Sun, Hernan Alexis Moreno and Edwin Javier Mejia both pled guilty on July 11^th in federal court to charges that stated that they paid up to $1 million in bribes to over 50 Baltimore police officers for allegedly sending business to their shop and falsifying crash reports.

Both men have agreed to cooperate with the Maryland U.S. attorney’s office in the case, which could lead to lighter sentences for them and more charges for others.

The brothers admitted in court that more than 50 officers were involved in the three-year-long scheme, which has become one of the widest police corruption probes in recent years.

Four officers have already pled guilty in connection with the scam and are facing potential 20-year prison terms once sentenced. A fifth officer is also expected to plead guilty this week.

The car owners were told that the arrangement would allow them to skip the towing fee and to avoid paying their insurance deductible if Majestic repaired the vehicle, while the company benefited from the boost in business.

According to their plea agreements, Moreno and Mejia first joined together with Baltimore officer Jhonn S. Corona in 2008, when they agreed that he would refer accident vehicles to the brothers for a fee. The brothers also accused Corona of recruiting other officers and doling out their illegal payments himself, while skimming some off the top for personal use.

Corona pleaded not guilty to extortion conspiracy charges in a March indictment.

The plea agreements also state that other officers are accused of inflating or inflicting vehicle damage “in order to increase Majestic’s profit from the insurance company payments.”

That additional damage caused between $200,000 and $1 million in losses for insurance companies.

For example, an insurance carrier paid Majestic more than $2,000 for repairs to a car “even though most of the damage had been done by [Moreno]” in December 2010, U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake said in reviewing Moreno’s plea agreement Monday.

Mejia and Moreno stated that they paid officers a total of between $200,000 and $1 million — coincidentally, the same amount as the estimated insurance loss — during the scheme.

The brothers and all of the officers who pled guilty have agreed to forfeit all illegal gains.

Moreno and Mejia each face a maximum of 25 years in prison for one conviction each of extortion and conspiracy, plus fines of up to $500,000. Their U.S. District Court sentencings are scheduled for November 18^th.

However, according to their plea agreements, they are likely to receive terms of between six to nine years.