Calabasas Man Gets 9 Years in Prison for Insurance Fraud

A Calabasas man was sentenced Tuesday to nine years in state prison and ordered to repay $10 million for his role in an insurance fraud that bilked insurance companies out of millions, a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney said.

Amir Zamyad, 36, pleaded guilty in June 1996 to six counts of conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, tax fraud and money laundering.

The ring operated nine medical clinics and law offices throughout the country to handle fraudulent auto insurance and workers’ compensation claims and employed people to stage automobile accidents, said Elliot Fisher, a deputy district attorney in the Workers’ Compensation Fraud Division.

The claims were then forwarded to the medical clinics where Zamyad and his conspirators drew up phony evidence and medical reports, which were used to bilk insurance companies out of about $10 million, Fisher said.

Zamyad headed one of the largest clinics, Metropolitan Medical Clinic in Los Angeles, and Better Health Care Clinic in Van Nuys.

Fisher said Zamyad and co-defendant Hossein Motamedi, 34, of Los Angeles--who was sentenced last year on similar charges--operated similar fraud rings in Houston and Dallas.

The case against Zamyad and Motamedi was the first to be filed under Operation CONLAW, which teams prosecutors and investigators with the district attorney’s office, the California Department of Insurance, the FBI, the Secret Service, the U.S. Postal Service and Internal Revenue Service. CONLAW was started in 1995.