Two more men were charged last week for masterminding fake car crashes on busy New York highways as part of a scheme to pocket insurance payouts.
Jaime Huiracocha is accused of spearheading the staged crashes last fall. The Queens District Attorney’s Office said the 53-year-old Brooklyn man is connected to at least three phony crashes, including one in October that went viral on TikTok.
According to the police investigation, Huiracocha wrangled a crew of participants to drive and ride inside multiple cars to assist in the staging of the crash. One car would be directly involved in the crash, while the second would trail close behind and pick up the driver of that first car, Huiracocha’s alleged accomplice, and ride off.
A small crew would meet Huriacocha and Victor Murillo, the driver of the car, not long before the staged crash. They would show up at the pre-arranged meeting location and get into one of several cars, according to prosecutors.
Murillo would always drive the car, but the team would be in possession of black plastic bags to block the windows following the crash — giving them enough time to switch seats and make their victim believe someone other than Murillo was behind the wheel.
The second car would pull up a short time later and pick up Murillo, 34, also from Brooklyn, and drive him away from the scene.
Investigators uncover scheme
Law enforcement became privy to insurance payout operation thanks to a viral video circulating on TikTok.
On Oct. 16, Asphia Natasha was driving north on the Belt Parkway when a silver Honda Civic cut in front of her car and stopped.
Natasha braked to avoid a collision and the Honda’s driver backed into her car, damaging both vehicles, prosecutors said.
The occupants of the Honda held up what appeared to be a plastic tarp that partly obscured Natasha’s view inside the Honda, and the occupants of the Honda switched seats within the car, Katz said.
Natasha’s dashboard camera captured the collision, and the video has received millions of views on TikTok.
A 28-year-old man was arrested the following month on charges of insurance fraud, staging a crash, and reckless endangerment. Investigators, however, believed he was riding in the backseat at the time of the crash.
“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,” Katz said in a statement.
Two weeks earlier, Huiracocha and Murillo allegedly a crash on Oct. 3 on the Nassau Expressway in Lindenwood. Prosecutors said Murillo was behind the wheel, once again, of a Nissan Xterra that cut in front of the driver of a tractor trailer. The two vehicles crashed.
Prosecutors allege Murillo again snuck out of a different door and into a second car waiting to drive him away from the scene. The crew eventually submitted a claim to Allstate totaling more than $3,000, Katz’s office said.
Two months before that, on Aug. 24, the Huiracocha and Murillo crew struck again — this time on the Belt Parkway around 8 a.m. Murillo was allegedly driving a silver Honda Civic when he cut off a drive, forcing a crash near the Erskine Street exit.
The victim also had a dashcam that caught footage of the crash, prosecutors said, including images of Murillo exiting the Honda and slipping away in a second car. The team of staged actors for this crash submitted a claim for $79,000.
Huiracocha and Murillo were arraigned last Tuesday in court on charges of staging car crashes, reckless endangerment, conspiracy and insurance fraud. They are due back next month.
If convicted of the top charge, they each face up to 15 years in prison. Attorney contact information for each man was not immediately known.
