Six people have been indicted in connection with a large-scale insurance fraud scheme in Everett, and two of the individuals are on the run, authorities announced Monday.
Four of those indicted have been arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court, the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office said in a statement. It is alleged that the six people filed false insurance claims through their business, Riviera Auto Body, allegedly defrauding multiple insurance carriers of more than $1 million.
The DA’s office said Fabio Rodrigo Jordao Correa, 31, of Saugus, os charged with one count of conspiracy to commit larceny over $1,200, six counts of larceny over $1,200, one count of common and notorious thief, eleven counts of false or fraudulent insurance claims, and one count of identity fraud. Both Jose Manuel Gordon, 49, of Roxbury, and Tabajara Alves Ribeiro, 23, of Saugus, are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit larceny over $1,200. Gordon is also charged with one count of receiving stolen property.
Wanda Greene, 56, of Revere is charged, according to the DA’s office, with receiving a bribe as a public employee, receiving unlawful gratuities as a public employee, and receiving improper compensation as a public employee.
The two people who remain fugitives in the case, according to the DA’s office, are Jhon Alexander Lopera Munera, 40, of Revere, and Edwin Alexander Lopera Munera, 33, of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Both are believed to be in Colombia, the DA’s office said. Jhon Lopera is facing a slew of charges, including six counts of larceny over $1,200 to 15 counts of false or fraudulent insurance claims and one count of bribery of a public employee.
Prosecutors said Jhon Lopera and Fabio Correa were the alleged masterminds behind the scheme.
The DA’s office said over the course of multiple years, the individuals indicted in the case submitted fraudulent insurance claims to difference carriers through the Everett auto body shop, ranging from those describing car collisions that never happened, to those where the damage was inflated or never occurred.
“The claims also listed persons as drivers of vehicles involved in the collisions who were simply aliases of the defendants or stolen identities appropriated by the defendants for use in the fraudulent scheme,” the DA’s office said. “As part of the scheme, defendant Lopera allegedly cultivated a relationship with defendant Greene, who was a clerk at the RMV branch in Revere and performed RMV queries and transactions at Lopera’s request and received electronic payments and gift cards from Lopera as compensation for her services to him.”
According to the DA’s office, investigators worked on the case for two years.