The Belt Parkway. Two Brooklyn men were charged with staging three car accidents for insurance payouts. Photo / Johnny Milano, The New York Times
Two Brooklyn men were charged with orchestrating three car accidents last year on New York City highways in exchange for payouts from insurance companies, prosecutors announced.
One of the men, Jaime Huiracocha, recruited participants in the scheme, prosecutors said, while the other man, Victor Murillo, drove the vehicles involved in the collisions.
The accidents took place on the Belt Parkway, a major highway that runs through southern Brooklyn and southern Queens, and on the nearby Nassau Expressway.
Video of the third collision, captured in October on the Belt Parkway by the victim’s dash cameras, has since garnered 80 million views on TikTok.
Huiracocha, 53, and Murillo, 34, were charged with staging a motor vehicle accident, reckless endangerment, conspiracy and insurance fraud, among other crimes, according to a statement yesterday from the Queens district attorney’s office. They each face 15 years in prison if found guilty on the most serious charge.
In the statement, the district attorney’s office described a complex plot to defraud drivers.
On October 16, Huiracocha met with a group of people at a medical clinic in Brooklyn and gave them instructions on how to stage a car accident. He promised the group “thousands of dollars”, according to prosecutors.
Huiracocha and the group, including Murillo, then drove to a location near the Belt Parkway where four vehicles, including a silver Honda Civic and a red Kia, were parked, prosecutors said.
Huiracocha assigned drivers to the waiting vehicles and the team headed out on the parkway to look for a victim, according to prosecutors. Murillo, the driver of the Honda, was able to communicate with the rest of the group using headphones.
The group soon decided to target a 2021 Acura RDX, driven by Ashpia Natasha of Queens, heading north in the left lane of the parkway.
Prosecutors claim Murillo drove the Honda in front of Natasha and abruptly came to a stop. Natasha stepped on her brakes to avoid an accident, but Murillo backed into her car, causing what she later claimed was $8300 in damages.
Murillo then got out of the Honda, leaving it on the road, and got into the Kia, which had been following close behind Natasha and had pulled in front of the Honda after the accident. The Kia then left the scene, prosecutors said.
Dash cameras on Natasha’s vehicle recorded the accident and its aftermath. A day after the collision, she uploaded the footage to TikTok, where it went viral.
In an interview today, Natasha said she was relieved that Murillo and Huiracocha had been charged, and she credited social media for highlighting the episode.
“I’m really grateful for everyone who helped me bring attention to it,” Natasha, 32, said.
“If it wasn’t for them I feel like this incident wouldn’t really have been taken seriously.”
Melinda Katz, the Queens district attorney, said that staged auto accidents had been used to fleece “innocent drivers”, and that New Yorkers were “outraged” by such crimes.
“We are grateful that the initial victim came forward with shocking dashcam video of one of these collisions,” Katz said in the statement.
Maikel Martinez, who was also in the vehicle that struck Natasha, according to prosecutors, was charged in November with insurance fraud, staging a motor vehicle accident, reckless endangerment and other crimes.
Murillo and Huiracocha were involved in two other staged accidents last year, according to prosecutors.
Alexis Mendoza was driving a tractor-trailer on the Nassau Expressway on October 3 when a Nissan Xterra abruptly cut in front of him, causing a collision. Afterwards, Murillo got out of the Nissan and entered a nearby vehicle, which left the scene, prosecutors said.
On August 24, a vehicle travelling westbound on the Belt Parkway collided with a silver Honda Civic that had merged directly in front of it, prosecutors said.
After the accident, the driver of the vehicle, Alyssa Attanasio, saw what appeared to be a black rubbish bag covering the rear window of the Honda, preventing her from viewing its occupants.
Four men including Murillo got out of the Honda and hopped into a red Kia after the crash, prosecutors said.
Allstate Insurance received personal injury claims from the Honda’s occupants totalling more than US$79,000, according to the district attorney’s office.
Nine months after her accident, Natasha said she hoped the experience – and the attention it received – would help highlight the importance of dashcams and prevent others from falling victim to insurance schemes.
“I’m just relieved, because if this was to happen to anyone else again they’ll be prepared,” she said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Samantha Latson
Photograph by: Johnny Milano
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