46 Arrested in Alleged Insurance Fraud Ring : Autos: Authorities say Hollywood agency supplied backdated policies to uninsured motorists who had been in accidents.

State and local investigators said they cracked a major auto insurance fraud ring based in a Hollywood insurance agency where uninsured drivers who had car accidents could obtain backdated insurance policies.

In a weekend sweep, California Insurance Department fraud investigators and representatives of the Los Angeles district attorney’s office arrested 46 suspects, including the two men who ran the Hollywood agency.

The suspected ringleaders are Samuel Nadjarian, 25, of North Hollywood, and Khatchik Sahakian, 24, of Glendale, partners in Red Light Insurance Services, located on the second level of a strip mall at 5123 Sunset Blvd.

Investigators said the two men, for a $1,000 fee, would supply uninsured motorists with auto insurance policies backdated to the date of their car accidents or a few days before so that the drivers could file claims for medical bills and, in some cases, damage to their vehicles. “It’s a type of scheme we’ve seen many times,” although normally on a far smaller scale, said Jerry Treadway of the Insurance Department’s fraud division.

In a discovery apparently unrelated to the fraud, investigators found and seized more than 50 weapons, including Uzi and M-16s firearms, illegal explosive devices, knives, brass knuckles and other weapons, at Nadjarian’s house when they arrested him Friday. They also seized several illegal electronic gambling machines at his home and at the office.

The 46 suspects arrested Friday, Saturday and Sunday were among 53 people named in six sealed indictments handed down last week by a Los Angeles County grand jury. The indictments charged them with insurance fraud and other felonies. Seven suspects remained at large Monday.

Sahakian, charged with conspiracy, perjury and insurance fraud, was ordered held on $200,000 bail when he was arraigned Monday.

Nadjarian is charged with the same three counts plus violation of probation. He is being held without bail. Investigators said Nadjarian is on probation on a concealed weapons charge, which made it illegal for him to possess the weapons, even though the firearms and other weapons were properly registered.

The policies involved in the alleged insurance scam all were issued through the California Automobile Assigned Risk Plan, the industry-financed high-risk pool for motorists whose driving records are too poor for them to obtain conventional coverage.

In some cases, investigators said, good drivers lied on their applications to make their driving records appear worse so that they could qualify for CAARP coverage.

Policies written under CAARP are randomly distributed to individual insurance companies based on their California market share. That aspect made it harder for insurers to spot a pattern in the claims than if only one or two companies had been victimized, investigators said.

The claims--which ranged from a little more than $1,000 to a high of $35,000 and were filed between October, 1991, and July, 1994--totaled $410,000, investigators said, although they say that the probe is continuing and the final total will probably be higher.

The total does not include what the insurance companies paid to investigate the fraud, nor what they spent in a few cases to defend the phony policyholders in lawsuits that arose from their accidents.