insurance fraud ring targeted asian drivers

In New York, authorities have busted a massive insurance fraud ring that staged dozens of car crashes targeting Asian American drivers in Queens: NYPD slams brakes on insurance fraud ring targeting Asians.

The 19 month-long, multi-agency investigation, dubbed "Operation Direct Hit," charged 61 people and two businesses with orchestrating fender benders in Flushing to swindle insurance companies out of more than $1.6 million dollars since 2005.

The scammers apparently targeted Asian drivers because they thought they were "bad drivers who would be blamed for the accidents." I'm not kidding. That's racist! And because of that, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown charged at least one defendant with a hate crime. Damn right.

According to authorities, ringleaders paid their henchmen to wait for unsuspecting drivers to back out of parking lots or driveways along Northern Blvd. from Parsons Blvd. to 105th St. and then crash into them with a car full of passengers.

The bogus "victims" would then rack up huge fake medical bills at the Bronx Park Medical clinic in Manhattan, where the ringleaders operated the scheme. The plot unraveled when claims investigators at Nationwide found three suspiciously similar "accidents" in Queens and reported them to the NYPD.

I swear, there was a Law and Order episode with this exact same plot. The defendants—seven of whom are still on the lam—face up to 25 years, if convicted of enterprise corruption, insurance fraud, grand larceny and fraud charges.