Video<\/a> of the attack released by the Department of Insurance shows what appears to be, to the casual observer, at least, a person in a brown bear costume entering a car and rummaging around and pawing at the inside. The video includes photos of superficial scratches on the vehicle\u2019s expensive leather seats and door panel. <\/p>\nBut when an insurance company claims investigator reviewed the video footage, they noticed something odd. Aside from the fact that there hasn\u2019t been a true brown bear, or California grizzly, in the Golden State since in the 1920s, the way the ferocious \u2014 albeit slightly skinny \u2014 beast was moving looked less ursine and more human.<\/p>\n
Detectives enlisted help from a California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist to review the video, and they agreed it was clearly a human in a bear suit. <\/p>\n
Through their investigation, authorities discovered the individuals made two additional insurance claims \u2014 one for a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and another for a 2022 Mercedes E350 \u2014 with separate companies. All three of the claims, which authorities allege were fraudulent, had the same date of loss and the same location. And all included very similar videos.<\/p>\n
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Two of the companies fell for the ruse, officials said.<\/p>\n
Bristol West paid out $52,268 to the group and an additional $34,000 to pay off a loan on one of the cars. Progressive shelled out $55,920 for another claim. <\/p>\n
The third claim, filed to State Farm, was denied after the company reviewed the footage, Hood said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSomething like this wouldn\u2019t usually get paid,\u201d Hood said. \u201cSometimes, insurance companies are just trying to pay it out quickly and may not have facts organized and haven\u2019t looked that thoroughly.\u201d<\/p>\n
In November 2024, detectives executed a search and arrest warrant at the defendants\u2019 home and discovered a head-to-claw bear costume and meat shredders they say were used in the scheme. <\/p>\n
On the surface, the idea that even two companies believed these incidents involved actual bears may seem far-fetched, but experts say there\u2019s reasons a claim like this could slip through the cracks.<\/p>\n
Insurance companies are wary of bad faith lawsuits that arise when they deny claims, so they\u2019ll often pay them out just to avoid legal problems, said Harry Kazakian, a licensed private investigator and independent claims adjuster. And scammers know exactly what to damage to get a payout, he said.<\/p>\n
In this case, with damage to the interior of the car, insurance companies won\u2019t just pay to repair the upholstery, they will pay to replace the entire seat, which is expensive. So those looking to make a quick buck will claim damage to a seat and, instead of having the insurance company pay a body shop to repair it, the insured will \u201ccash out\u201d on the claim and keep the money, Kazakian said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe insurance company doesn\u2019t have to inspect the vehicle to make sure it\u2019s been repaired. So they\u2019ll just cash out and then move on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Even then, this was the weirdest case he\u2019d ever heard of in his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look carefully, here\u2019s a bear that\u2019s able to unlock the vehicle door and open the door like a human and get in,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd, of course, the markings on the vehicle as bear claws being asymmetrical, I think, is what caught the company\u2019s attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alfiya Zuckerman, 39, of Valley Village and Ruben Tamrazian, 26, Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32, and Ararat Chirkinian, 39, all of Glendale, were charged with multiple felonies including aggravated white-collar crime, presenting a false insurance claim and destroying insured property. They initially pleaded not guilty to all counts, according to San Bernardino Superior Court records.<\/p>\n
This month, Zuckerman, Tamrazian and Muradkhanyan pleaded no contest to felony insurance fraud in a plea bargain with prosecutors and were sentenced to 180 days in jail and supervised probation, according to court records. <\/p>\n
All three are permitted to serve their time through a weekend jail program. Zuckerman was ordered to pay $55,360 in restitution and Tamrazian will have to pay $52,268. A restitution amount hasn\u2019t been determined for Muradkhanyan, according to the California Department of Insurance.<\/p>\n
Chirkinian is scheduled to return to court in September for a preliminary hearing. An attorney representing Chirkinian in the case did not immediately respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n
Brian Darr, a senior forensic engineer for Quality Forensics who has been investigating insurance claims for more than 16 years, said it\u2019s often not that difficult to determine whether a claim is fraudulent. <\/p>\n
Insurance companies do consistency evaluations that can help root out fraud by determining whether the damage submitted is consistent with what you\u2019d generally expect from the incident. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019d look for something that looks like a bear claw mark,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re seeing tool marks, then you\u2019d know this wasn\u2019t actually a bear.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cOperation Bear Claw\u201d was definitely a new kind of insurance fraud case. The target: a Rolls-Royce and two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[118757,118755,6577,29353,117935,7,8707,9,8,283,1436,8863,33343,118754,118756,118753,178,5050],"class_list":{"0":"post-274059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-additional-insurance-claim","9":"tag-alfiya-zuckerman","10":"tag-authority","11":"tag-bear","12":"tag-bear-costume","13":"tag-california","14":"tag-california-department","15":"tag-california-headlines","16":"tag-california-news","17":"tag-car","18":"tag-case","19":"tag-claim","20":"tag-insurance-company","21":"tag-rolls-royce","22":"tag-ruben-tamrazian","23":"tag-separate-company","24":"tag-vehicle","25":"tag-video"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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