Eleven Tri-Cities residents are accused of participating in a widespread fraud ring that amassed almost $1 million in insurance payouts from staged car crashes.
The scheme involved at least 14 vehicle accidents over a three-year period, with the conspirators misleading law enforcement officers, medical personnel and insurance companies, according to an 81-page indictment filed in federal court.
The orchestrated collisions between vehicles often happened on remote roads and at night with no witnesses, the indictment says.
No one was inside the “victim” vehicle during at least three of the staged accidents, hammers were used to break car windows in at least two, and weighted items were placed on the front passenger seat in one vehicle so the airbag would deploy on impact, federal prosecutors said.
After some of the wrecks, the accused “sought emergency room and medical treatment for fictitious, fabricated and exaggerated accident symptoms and injuries” and hired personal injury lawyers to pursue their fraudulent claims, the indictment states.
The collected payouts came from claims for bodily injury, loss of wages and property damage to the vehicles.
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Now, 23 people from four U.S. states and Canada are charged with the scam in U.S. District Court in Richland.
They include four married couples, three sets of siblings and a father and son.
Ten of the defendants live in Kennewick and one is from Eltopia, just north of Pasco.
One woman — the...
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