CHP employee and 14 others charged in complex insurance fraud ring
Prosecutors charged a California Highway Patrol employee and 14 other Southern California residents for their alleged involvement in a complex insurance fraud ring that collected over $350,000 in fraudulent claims.
The California Department of Insurance said its Inland Empire Automobile Insurance Task Force discovered the organization also allegedly held vehicles hostage until the victims' insurance companies paid out ransoms.
The task force consists of the California Department of Insurance, California Highway Patrol, the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office, and the Riverside County District Attorney's Office.
It started the investigation in November 2022 after learning that a non-sworn CHP employee, 55-year-old Rosa Isela Santistevan, unlawfully sold thousands of traffic collision reports to alleged ring leader Andre Angelo Reyes. He would then send the reports to 26-year-old Esmeralda Parga, according to the state insurance department.
Investigators claimed Parga would pose as the victims' insurance company. The unsuspecting victims would coordinate with Parge to have their vehicles towed to CA collision, which was owned by another alleged member of the ring, 35-year-old Anthony Gomez. Once there, the repair shop would hold the car hostage until the insurance companies sent a cash payment to release it.
After issuing multiple search warrants, investigators recovered video showing the members intentionally crashing cars into each other to make fraudulent claims, according to the state insurance department. In one case, the suspects crashed a BMW sedan into a Polaris Slingshot before they filed two separate reports, claiming the crashes happened on the freeway.
The Department of Insurance said the suspects filed 19 fraudulent claims resulting in $353,035.
The San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office charged all 15 suspects with insurance fraud, grand theft by trick and false imprisonment. Law enforcement arrested 12 of the 15 suspects.
Reyes, Santistevan, Parga, and Gomez are being held on a $700,000 bond each. The others charged in the scheme are:
- Ezequiel Baltazar Orozco, 30, of Los Angeles, was charged but not yet in custody.
- Antonio Terrazas Perez Jr., 19, of Los Angeles, was booked into the West Valley Detention Center, and bail is set at $150,000.
- Erika Garcia, 31, of Los Angeles, was charged but not yet in custody.
- Israel Avila Sandoval, 45, of Pomona, was booked into the West Valley Detention Center, and bail is set at $150,000.
- Luis Alberto Ramirez Jr., 32, of San Bernardino, was booked into the West Valley Detention Center, and bail is set at $100,000.
- Robert Arzac, 49, of West Covina, was booked into the Orange County Jail, and bail is set at $50,000.
- Antonio Ramirez Perez, 44, of Los Angeles, was booked into the West Valley Detention Center, and bail is set at $350,000.
- Brian Anthony Lopez, 25, of Anaheim
- Emily Marie Boatman, 26, of Ontario, was booked into the West Valley Detention Center, and bail is set at $700,000.
- Ricardo Parga Jr., 23, of Pomona; booked into the West Valley Detention Center and bail is set at $50,000.
- Steven Anthony Alfaro, 38, of Buena Park, was charged but not yet in custody.