Police have cracked down on an insurance fraud ring operating out of Riviera Auto Body in Everett, MA, leading to the indictment of six people.
The scheme, which unfolded over several years, involved the submission of numerous false insurance claims, manipulating the system to illicitly gain more than $1 million from multiple insurance carriers. The claims submitted were rife with inaccuracies, including fabricated automobile collisions, inflated damage reports and the use of aliases or stolen identities.
The claims were false in a variety of ways: they often included descriptions of collisions that never occurred, or collisions in which the damage to the vehicles were inflated, or damage to the vehicle was done at the shop itself and was not the result of a collision. The claims also listed drivers involved the collisions who were simply aliases of the defendants, or stolen identities used by the defendants.
As part of the scheme, one defendant, Jhon Alexander Lopera Munera, allegedly cultivated a relationship with another defendant, Wanda Greene, a clerk at the RMV branch in Revere who performed RMV queries and transactions at Munera’s request and received electronic payments and gift cards from Munera as compensation.
Fabio Rodrigo Jordao Correa, 31, of Saugus, has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit larceny over $1,200, six counts of larceny over $1,200, one count of common and notorious thief, 11 counts of false or fraudulent insurance claims, and one count of identity fraud.
Jose Manuel Gordon, 49, of Roxbury, has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit larceny over $1,200 and one count of receiving stolen property.
Tabajara Alves Ribeiro, 23, of Saugus, has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit larceny over $1,200.
Greene, 56, of Revere, has been charged with receiving a bribe as a public employee, receiving unlawful gratuities as a public employee, and receiving improper compensation as a public employee.
Jhon Munera and another person were indicted by the grand jury and are fugitives. Jhon Munera, 40, of Revere, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit larceny over $1,200, six counts of larceny over $1,200, one count of common and notorious thief, 15 counts of false or fraudulent insurance claims, one count of bribery of a public employee, one count of giving unlawful gratuities to a public employee, and one count of promising or offering improper compensation to a public employee. Edwin Alexander Lopera Munera, 33, of Pawtucket, RI, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit larceny over $1,200. Both of those individuals are believed to be in Colombia.
The news was announced by District Attorney Marian Ryan, Everett Chief of Police Steven Mazzie and Chief of Investigations of the Massachusetts Insurance Fraud Bureau Katherine Mulligan.
