Three Los Angeles fraudsters have been jailed for their parts in an insurance scam that involved a person in a bear suit staging fake attacks on high-end vehicles.

The con artists claimed a bear entered their 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost in January 2024 and caused interior damage. They submitted video footage to support their claim.

Their insurer raised suspicions and the California Department of Insurance launched a probe dubbed Operation Bear Claw.

 

 

Investigators found two more claims submitted to other insurers – for a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and 2022 Mercedes E350.

The total loss to the insurance companies was $US141,839 ($197,870).

A biologist from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife reviewed the video footage and concluded the “animal” was a human in a bear suit. Detectives later raided a property and recovered the costume.

 

 

Alfiya Zuckerman, 39, Ruben Tamrazian, 26, and Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32, pleaded no contest to felony insurance fraud and were sentenced to 180 days in jail (served through a weekend program), plus two years of supervised probation.

“What may have looked unbelievable turned out to be exactly that – and now those responsible are being held accountable,” California’s insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara said.

“My department’s investigators uncovered the facts, exposed this scam, and helped bring these defendants to justice. Insurance fraud is a serious crime that drives up costs for consumers, and no scheme is too outrageous for us to investigate.”