California Attorney Busted in $1M Auto Fraud Ring

A Sherman Oaks attorney suspected of running an approximately $1 million auto insurance fraud ring was arrested by California Department of Insurance detectives in a case that began more than four years ago with a ledger containing cryptic notes.

Deputy District Attorney Gregory Alker of the Automobile Insurance Task Force said Hamid Taghizadeh, 46 (dob 4/21/62), is charged in case No. BA349614 with 86 felony counts, including filing false and fraudulent claims, receiving or offering compensation for referrals, insurance fraud, grand theft of personal property and failure to file income tax returns.

Taghizadeh was arrested without incident at his North Hollywood home. Arraignment dates will be announced later for he and his five co-defendants. Bail for the Taghizadeh is recommended at $250,000.

Others named in the 59-page complaint include Jose Miguel Ayala, 23 (dob 10/26/85), of Van Nuys, charged with 83 felony counts, and Claudia Belen Cota, 32 (dob 2/276), of Sylmar, charged with 53 felony counts.

Prosecutors allege that Ayala netted about $191,000 in capping fees over the course of 10 months. Similarly, Cota – an administrative assistant at the Law Office of Hamid Taghizadeh in Los Angeles – received more than $83,000 in capping fees over a two-year period.

Zekrollah Taghizadeh, 53 (dob 8/23/55), of North Hills, is charged with 32 felony counts. He is accused of helping his brother run the alleged insurance fraud scam. Bassam Michael Naber, D.C., 48 (dob 5/20/60), of Canyon Country, is charged with six felony counts, and Yousef Rushdi Helo, D.C., 43 (dob 7/22/65), of Simi Valley, is charged with nine felony counts. Naber and Helo, both chiropractors, allegedly created false documents as part of the insurance fraud.

The case began in July 2004 after a California Highway Patrol officer pulled over an alleged capper. Two sets of warrants were executed shortly thereafter and the items were subsequently sealed. Two years later, the seized items were unsealed following a failed attempt by Taghizadeh to litigate the return of the property all the way up to the California Supreme Court.

Among the items recovered was a capping ledger that contained a cryptic code. The book included numeric sequences such as "10-1, 10-1-12, etc.” The code was eventually broken by a CHP sergeant who determined that the code represented the first and last letters of the cappers names. Jose Ayala, for instance, was “10-1.”

During the investigation, prosecutors and California Department of Insurance detectives partnered with the Franchise Tax Bureau and discovered that Taghizadeh had allegedly filed false returns for 2004 and 2005. Similarly, Ayala had purportedly not filed a return for 2004 and Cota had not filed returns for 2004 or 2005.