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Gov. Kathy Hochul and State Police announced Tuesday the arrest of 16 car insurance scammers who deliberately caused crashes then filed $500,000 in bogus claims.
Hochul, a Democrat up for reelection next month, trumpeted the arrests at a news conference in Washington Heights as she said insurance fraud cases had tripled in the last five years — while warning that more arrests were to come.
“Mark my words: These first 16 are just the beginning,” Hochul said. “For anyone who thinks they can get away with a crash, think again. We are onto you.:
The busts unfolded in the Bronx, on Long Island and upstate, officials said.
“I have no tolerance for any individuals who commit fraud in ways that drive up cost for others or abuse public dollars for their own personal gain,” Hochul said. “And I have used every tool in my arsenal to stop exactly that.”
The scams followed a typical playbook — with individuals or groups of people piled into a car deliberately causing crashes with unsuspecting drivers, who they then try to blame before filing claims.
That’s what allegedly happened on Dec. 2, 2025, when 28-year-old DuSean Barnett allegedly swerved into a car waiting at a stop sign at a Brooklyn intersection and then tried to blame the unsuspecting driver of running the sign.
Barnett filed a $16,000 medical claim — only for footage to later reveal Barnett’s car was the only one moving at the time of the collision.
That claim was small potatoes compared to some of the others accused in the ongoing crackdown — a November 2025 fake collision allegedly involved scammers who tried filed over $150,000 in medical claims, while an October 2025 incident involved nearly $116,000 in claims.
Sometimes the accused weren’t even in the car at the time of collisions.
Esgar D. Zavala Espinoza, 29, claimed $41,540 worth of medical bills after allegedly saying he was injured in a parked car struck by a tractor trailer on Staten Island, only for officials to later determine he was not in the car, authorities claimed.
“If you have never seen a staged crash, count yourself lucky,” Hochul said. “Over the last five years, we have seen a triple digit increase in staged crashes related to fraud.”
In 2023 alone New York recorded 1,700 such incidents, the second highest of any state in the country that year — with Hochul saying the state’s incidents were an “outlier compared to the rest of nation” and that a “broken system” made it easier for criminals to game the system in the Empire State.
“All that fraud drives up what New Yorkers pay in their insurance premium,” Hochul said. “The average New Yorker pays some of the highest auto insurance rates in the entire country, about $4,000 a year. Almost $1,500 more than the national average.”
Fake accidents have commanded headlines in recent months, with various videos emerging of cars swerving in front of others than slamming on the breaks.
In one particularly egregious 2024 case, a car was filmed swerving across traffic in an apparent attempt to cause a fender-bender.
But when the car behind them safely braked, the scammers shifted into reverse and accelerated backwards into a collision.
A pile of people then poured out of the attacking car, rubbing their heads and necks in pathetic feints of injury.
Hochul, who is seeking a second full four-year term, is facing Republican Bruce Blakeman in the Nov. 3 election.