Tip to Anaheim Police Helps Break Up Insurance Fraud Ring

A Beverly Hills attorney was arrested Wednesday in connection with what police said was an insurance fraud ring responsible for staging 54 traffic collisions in Orange and Los Angeles counties over the past 10 years.

The arrest of Michael T. Bota, 61, at his home in Sherman Oaks culminated a yearlong investigation by six law enforcement agencies into a ring that they say collected more than $425,000 from insurance companies and accident victims by forcing unwary drivers into rear-end collisions.

As many as 44 others, including doctors, lawyers and the alleged ringleader, who is still at large, may have been involved in an operation that filed more than $920,000 in bodily injury claims with insurance companies, Anaheim Police Officer Allen Eichorn said.

Operated About 10 Years

Anaheim police detectives launched the investigation more than a year ago after a tip-off from some armed robbery suspects and continued it under the supervision of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s major fraud unit. The California Department of Insurance’s Bureau of Fraudulent Claims, the Insurance Crime Prevention Institute, the California Highway Patrol and the Department of Motor Vehicles also cooperated in the investigation.

“This organization has been operating for approximately 10 years in the Los Angeles County area with a recent increase in staged collisions occurring in the Orange County area,” Anaheim police officials said in announcing the arrest. “This is only one of numerous existing rings staging traffic collisions in the Southern California area.”

Typically, the ring preyed on single motorists driving late-model cars, most often on busy streets where traffic was moving at 30 to 35 m.p.h., police said. An older car, usually with three or four occupants, would drive in front of the target car, then abruptly stop.

The occupants of the car would produce fictitious driver’s licenses and, generally, they would not claim to be injured. But later, in cooperation with attorneys and doctors working with the ring, they would file claims with insurance companies for alleged injuries.

Search Warrants

Anaheim police said they learned of the extent of the ring’s operations when they obtained search warrants for Bota’s law offices, a medical office in Los Angeles and the Long Beach hOme of the alleged head of the ring, identified as Larry Donell Hill.

An arrest warrant was issued in October for Hill, charging him with 80 counts of insurance fraud and grand theft. Eichorn said he is believed to be out of the state.

Bota is charged with 32 counts of insurance fraud and grand theft. He is being held at the Los Angeles County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.

“It is believed that this particular ring involving the 45 persons has been fragmented,” Anaheim police officials said. “The investigation is currently focusing on other attorneys and doctors involved in similar fraudulent insurance claims, with further arrests anticipated.”