Two men who pleaded guilty to staging collisions across Queens for insurance payouts in a major fraud ring uncovered, in part, through a viral video were sentenced to hard time in prison.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday that Jaime Huiracocha and Victor Murillo were part of a concerning trend that has made driving in the Big Apple more expensive. The pair admitted to staging at least three crashes in 2024; the video of one went viral, and sparked an investigation by Katz’s office.
“I have two kids, 15-year-old and 18-years-old, so I watch the social media that they watch. I saw this viral video on one of the social media platforms called the office to point out that we immediately needed to call the law enforcement partners that we work with to begin the investigation,” Katz recalled. “I watch the videos and I say, “What are we doing about this?”
Calling the video “outrageous,” the incident took place at around noon on Oct. 16, 2024, on the left lane of the Belt Parkway in Rosedale. A 31-year-old was driving north when a Honda Civic driven by Murillo cut in front of her.
The victim immediately jammed on her brakes and managed to avoid a collision; however, this was not part of the swindler’s plans. He immediately reversed his car into hers.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced Thursday the sentencing of two men who orchestrated staged collisions for insurance payouts while also pledging to hunt down more fraudsters.Photo Queens DA
The victim had a dashcam that recorded the incident and immediately showed passengers climbing out of the vehicle, holding their necks and feigning injury. Meanwhile, Murillo fled the scene.
While Murillo acted as the designated driver for these staged crashes, Huiracocha followed behind in another vehicle serving as the mastermind, looking for victims and instructing his partner when to stage a crash.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday that Jaime Huiracocha and Victor Murillo were part of a concerning trend that has made driving in the Big Apple more expensive. The pair admitted to staging at least three crashes in 2024; the video of one went viral, and sparked an investigation by Katz’s office.Susan Watts/Office of Gov. Kathy Hochul
Prosecutors said they struck again at 8 a.m. on Aug. 24, 2024, at 8 a.m. on the westbound lane of the Belt Parkway near the Erskine Street exit. Murillo drove a Honda Civic and stopped in front of a 47-year-old woman, forcing them to collide.
A similar incident took place on Oct. 3 of that year at approximately 12 p.m. when a 44-year-old man from New Jersey was driving his tractor-trailer in the middle lane of the Nassau Expressway near Cross Bay Boulevard in Lindenwood, when Murillo suddenly cut into the middle lane directly in front of the truck.
While Murillo and Huiracocha were the leaders of the scheme, prosecutors described them as having a whole ecosystem of accomplices from passengers they hired to feign injuries for quick payouts, to doctors and lawyers who went along with the fraudulent injuries.
“We’re here to talk about the entire ecosystem of people who profit from these staged accidents. They are attorneys who help them with the insurance companies. They are the people in the medical field who are supposed to have been seen. They are individuals who faked their injuries. It’s an entire ecosystem of profit that they are making here, and we are going to investigate this type of behavior,” Katz said.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced Thursday the sentencing of two men who orchestrated staged collisions for insurance payouts while also pledging to hunt down more fraudsters.Photo Queens DA
According to Governor Hochul, in 2023 New York became the second-highest state in the country in terms of staged crashes. Meanwhile, in 2025, the Department of Financial Services 43,000 suspicious reports related to auto insurance, an 80 percent increase in five years. This has also led to insurance rates climbing.
“Families are under a lot of stress, and for them to know that part of this is driven by criminal activity that they have nothing to do with, and they’re paying the price. This is when it all ends, right here,” Hochul said.
Huiracocha was sentenced to one to two years behind bars while Murillo was sentenced to two years in prison.