Vehicles taken ‘hostage’ in Inland Empire insurance fraud scheme, authorities say

More than a dozen people are accused of engaging in an elaborate fraud scheme across the Inland Empire that entailed making false representations to people involved in collisions in order to take their vehicles and hold them “hostage” until receiving insurance payments, authorities said Friday, May 10.

Search warrants were executed Thursday by the Inland Empire Automobile Insurance Task Force, led by investigators from the California Department of Insurance and composed of law enforcement officers from multiple agencies, targeting 12 of 15 defendants.

The task force’s monthslong investigation uncovered an alleged fraud ring responsible for $353,035 in losses to auto insurers, according to the DOI.

The alleged ringleader was identified as 36-year-old Andre Angelo Reyes of Corona, who worked closely with 35-year-old Anthony Gomez of Jurupa Valley, operator of CA Collision, with repair facilities in San Bernardino County, according to investigators.

Additional cohorts named by the DOI were from Buena Park, West Covina, Ontario, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Pomona, San Bernardino, Corona and Irvine, authorities said.

According to the DOI, the ring’s alleged criminal acts began in November 2022, when Rosa Isela Santistevan of Irvine, a non-sworn employee of the California Highway Patrol, allegedly began illegally selling traffic collision face pages to Reyes, who had befriended her while making contributions to various CHP fundraisers.

Reyes allegedly enlisted the help of Esmeralda Parga of Pomona in gleaning the personal information of people listed on more than 3,500 of the pages, investigators said.

“Parga would then contact the parties involved in the collisions, pretending to be from their insurance company, and (she would) coordinate having their vehicle towed to a repair center … misrepresented as approved by the insurance company,” the DOI said in a statement.

The agency alleged that Parga was effectively “stealing the victims’ vehicles.”

“Reyes and Parga would dispatch tow trucks, whose drivers cooperated in the scheme and would pick up the vehicles and tow them to CA Collision,” according to the DOI.

Once locked inside Gomez’s repair sites, “CA Collision would hold the vehicle hostage and demand cash payment from the insurance companies to have the vehicles released,” according to the DOI.

In addition to the illegal tow-and-holds, there was evidence the conspirators engaged in “collusive collisions,” investigators alleged.

“One of those collisions was recorded by a defendant and discovered on the person’s phone during a search warrant,” the DOI said. “The video depicts the defendants intentionally crashing a BMW sedan into a Polaris Slingshot. The defendants then claimed two separate crashes occurring on the freeway.”

No injuries were reported in connection with the alleged acts.