Two Brooklyn men were charged Tuesday with preying on innocent drivers and deliberately causing three car crashes to collect insurance money for damage and injuries, prosecutors said.
Queens prosecutors said Jaime Huiracocha, 53, and Victor Murillo, 34, were charged with orchestrating the plan and offering a group of people cash payouts for participating in the car crashes last year, including on the Belt Parkway at the Queens-Nassau County border.
Huiracocha and Murillo were charged with insurance fraud, three counts of staging a motor vehicle accident, three counts of criminal mischief, conspiracy, reckless endangerment, grand larceny and attempted grand larceny.
They pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Queens Criminal Court. If convicted, they could both face up to 15 years in prison. Their attorneys could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Crashes in August and October on the Belt Parkway were captured on drivers’ front and rear dashcams, showing vehicles surrounding the victims’ car and causing the crash, prosecutors said.
“We are grateful that the initial victim came forward with shocking dashcam video of one of these collisions,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement. “After a long-term investigation with our partners at the NYPD and New York State Department of Financial Services we identified two additional defendants who are now charged for this wide-ranging scheme.”
Prosecutors said Huiracocha met with a group of participants at a medical clinic in East New York on Oct. 16 who were promised thousands of dollars for staging a car crash. Authorities said Huiracocha gave them instructions for the crash, including sending photos of the crash damage. They were then told to go to a different clinic in Glendale, Queens.
The drivers and other passengers met near the Belt Parkway, where they were given headphones and instructions to drive a silver Honda Civic and a red Kia, prosecutors said. Murillo drove the Honda while his passengers covered the back window with a black plastic bag, so he could allegedly switch seats with a passenger following a crash, prosecutors said.
Officials said a woman was driving on the Belt Parkway about 11 a.m. near the Nassau border in Rosedale when the Honda cut her off and came to a stop. The woman hit the brakes but the Honda backed up into the front of her car, according to prosecutors.
The passengers held up the black tarp, and prosecutors said Murillo allegedly switched seats with a woman who exited the driver’s seat, prosecutors said. Murillo fled in the Kia that was following them and stopped in front of the Honda, according to the victim’s dashcam footage.
Four people got out of the car, including a Brooklyn man, Maikel Martinez, 28, of Dyker Heights, and a woman who claimed to be his wife and said she was driving, according to prosecutors.
Martinez was charged in November with staging a motor vehicle accident, criminal mischief, reckless endangerment, conspiracy and insurance fraud.
The group is charged with orchestrating two other crashes in August and October on the Belt Parkway and the Nassau Expressway, according to prosecutors. In the August crash, a woman’s dash camera showed a man that appeared to be Murillo getting into the Kia after a crash.
In each case, the crew submitted claims to Allstate Insurance, including an injury claim for more than $79,000, prosecutors said.
Cases for Murillo, Martinez and Huiracocha are pending. Katz said staged crashes are becoming more common and investigated by the NYPD and district attorney’s fraud bureaus.
John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.