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Three men in Southern California have been sentenced to 180 days in jail after concocting a bizarre insurance fraud scheme which involved staging fake bear attacks on luxury vehicles using a person in a bear costume.
The suspects filed a claim in January 2024, alleging a bear had entered their 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost and damaged the interior. To support their claim, they provided video footage to the insurance company showing the "bear" inside the vehicle.
However, an investigation by the California Department of Insurance revealed the animal was actually a person in a costume. Biologists consulted during the probe confirmed the footage "was clearly a human in a bear suit."
Authorities uncovered two additional fraudulent claims involving the same date and location, linked to a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350. Detectives later discovered the bear costume while executing a search warrant at the home of one of the suspects.
Alfiya Zuckerman, 39, Ruben Tamrazian, 26, and Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32, were sentenced to 180 days in jail and ordered to pay restitution.
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