Three sentenced for 'man in bear suit' insurance scam
BBC • • nation
Key Points:
- Three men in California were sentenced for orchestrating an insurance scam involving staged attacks on luxury cars using a person in a bear costume.
- Viral videos showed a "bear" damaging a 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost and two high-end Mercedes vehicles in Lake Arrowhead on January 28, 2024, which were submitted as evidence to insurers.
- Biologists from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife identified the footage as depicting a human in a bear suit, prompting the state insurance department to launch "Operation Bear Claw."
- A search warrant executed at the suspects' home uncovered the bear costume, and the fraud resulted in $141,839 in insurance claims.
- Alfiya Zuckerman, Ruben Tamrazian, and Vahe Muradkhanyan pleaded no contest to felony insurance fraud and received sentences of 180 days in jail and two years of supervised probation.
