Three people sentenced to jail for bear-suit insurance scam in California | Los Angeles
Don’t poke the bear when it comes to the California insurance department.
That’s the lesson three people in Los Angeles learned recently when they were sentenced to prison for an insurance fraud scheme in which they dressed a person in a bear costume, then disguised that person as a real bear and attacked luxury vehicles.
The scheme went so far as to present a video of the alleged attack from inside the car parked at Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino mountains after the four defendants in the case filed an insurance claim in 2024 alleging the bear damaged a 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost.
It turned out that the drunkard figure in the video was actually a human.
“What seemed incredible turned out to be exactly that, and now those responsible are being held accountable,” the state’s insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, said in a statement. Press release Following the sentencing on Thursday. “My department’s investigators uncovered the facts, exposed this fraud, and helped bring these defendants to justice.
“Insurance fraud is a serious crime that increases costs for consumers, and no scheme is too outrageous for us to investigate.”
The video in question was shown The costumed person enters the vehicle and looks at it in a very unconvincing manner.
Investigators later discovered two more allegations that a person committed the same act in two other vehicles, each a Mercedes.
As part of the investigation, the state’s insurance department asked a California fish and wildlife biologist to review the videos. The scientist determined that “this was clearly a human in a bear costume.” Press release at the specified time.
While searching the home of one of the suspects involved, detectives found the bear costume seen in the video.
Alfiya Zuckerman, 39; Ruben Tamrazian, 26; and Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32, pleaded no contest to insurance fraud and were each sentenced to 180 days in prison.
Zuckerman and Tamrazian were each ordered to pay more than $52,000 in restitution. Muradkhanyan’s compensation amount was not immediately determined.
The fourth suspect, Ararat Chirkinian, 39, is scheduled to return to court in September for a preliminary hearing.
