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The Middlesex County District Attorney's Office announced the indictment of the six defendants on Monday, Feb. 26.
According to the DA's Office, a two-year investigation revealed that Everett-based FT Auto or Riviera Auto had been at the center of a "wide-ranging scheme" to defraud several insurance carriers.
As part of the scheme, the defendants would orchestrate the submission of insurance claims for shop customers that defrauded carriers of more than $1 million in payments. These claims would include descriptions of motor vehicle collisions that never happened, inflated vehicle damage, or even vehicle damage that was done at the shop itself and not as the result of a crash, officials said.
According to the DA's Office, the claims would also list drivers involved in collisions that were actually aliases of the defendants or stolen identities used by them for the scheme.
The four defendants arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court in connection to the scheme were:
- Fabio Rodrigo Correa, of Saugus, age 31;
- Jose Manuel Gordon, of Roxbury, age 49;
- Tabajara Alves Ribiero, of Saugus, age 23;
- Wanda Greene, of Revere, age 56.
Two people who were also indicted in the scheme remain on the run. They are:
- Jhon Alexander Lopera Munera of Revere, age 40;
- Edwin Alexander Lopera Munera of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, age 33.
Both are believed to be in Colombia, according to officials.
According to the DA's Office, Jhon Lopera and Correa were the masterminds behind the scheme. Additionally, Greene was a clerk at a Revere Registry of Motor Vehicles branch who performed queries and transactions at Lopera's request in exchange for electronic payments and gift cards, officials said.
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