6 charged in auto insurance fraud

Six people have been charged with participating in an auto insurance fraud ring that scammed companies out of nearly $1 million, authorities said Thursday.

The ring was busted after a California Highway Patrol officer deciphered a numerical code in a ledger seized from a Sherman Oaks attorney’s office, authorities said. That attorney, Hamid Taghizadeh, 46, was the suspected ringleader of the operation, according to authorities.

Taghizadeh allegedly paid people to bring him potential litigants to sue auto insurance companies -- an illegal practice known as “capping,” said Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregory Alker of the Automobile Insurance Task Force.

Taghizadeh faces 86 felony counts, including insurance fraud, receiving or offering compensation for referrals, grand theft of personal property and tax evasion, Alker said. The investigation into the ring began four years ago when a suspected capper was pulled over by a CHP officer.

-- Raja Abdulrahim