UPDATE Thursday 11:01am | A Long Beach man taken into custody Wednesday by police in connection with his alleged involvement in an auto insurance fraud ring has been identified.
Ryan Lincoln, 35, of Long Beach, was arrested yesterday and charged, along with nine others from Compton, Glendale, Hollywood and Los Angeles, with one count of insurance fraud, said Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Shiara Dávila-Morales.
Lincoln and three others arrested Wednesday were allegedly involved in a staged auto accident in April 2007 in conjunction with Glendale attorney John Akopian, who is currently facing 47 counts of insurance fraud, grand theft of personal property. money laundering, receiving stolen property and possession of an assault weapon, Dávila-Morales said.
5:15pm | The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced this afternoon that 10 men and women from Compton, Glendale, Hollywood, Long Beach and Los Angeles were arrested Wednesday on one charge each of insurance fraud.
Specific information about the person or persons from Long Beach whom police took into custody was not immediately available.
The arrests were made in conjunction with an ongoing case against a Glendale attorney who allegedly defrauded insurance companies by filing false claims for staged auto accidents. Originally charged with 38 counts in October 2009, the D.A.’s Office today tacked on 9 additional counts along with an enhancement, according to information provided by the D.A.’s Office.
Attorney John Akopian, 39, was originally charged with insurance fraud, grand theft of personal property, money laundering, receiving stolen property and possession of an assault weapon. He pleaded not guilty to all charges several days after his initial arrest, according to the D.A’s Office.
The new counts filed against Akopian today consist of nine charges of insurance fraud with an aggravated white-collar crime enhancement, said Deputy District Attorney Gregory Alker of the Automobile Insurance Fraud Division.
Akopian was among nearly two dozen men and women, several of them lawyers and chiropractors, who were arrested in 2009 for their part in a major auto insurance fraud ring in which they are accused of defrauding 15 insurance companies. Those arrested two years ago are all associates of Alexander Igor Gutman, 49, of Sherman Oaks, who authorities said is believed to have swindled millions of dollars by staging roughly 2,600 “paper accidents,” Alker said.
Gutman pleaded guilty to 15 counts of insurance fraud and admitted an aggravated white-collar crime enhancement in February 2009 and is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 15, according to the D.A.’s office.
At the time of their arrests in 2009, the D.A.’s Office contended that the case involved 28 defendants who are believed to be part of a larger conspiracy involving more than 300 individuals.
The 10 men and women arrested Wednesday are accused of conspiring with Akopian to defraud an insurance company of more than $74,000 through staged accidents, Alker said. Each suspect was allegedly involved in staging three separate “paper accidents” in which Akopian represented them as defendants.
Further information will be posted once it is received relative to the identity or identities of the person or persons from Long Beach who have been charged in the case.