7 SUSPECTED OF FRAUD MEN CLAIMED CASH FOR 'ACCIDENTS' THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

Seven San Fernando Valley men fabricated more than 100 crashes that bilked automobile insurers of $2 million, Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi alleged Wednesday.

The suspects, believed part of a 10-man fraud ring, allegedly submitted 112 claims for bogus ``paper crashes,'' accidents that never occurred, between 1999 and 2002. Seven connected with the TNS Body Shop in Tujunga were arrested by Department of Insurance investigators in October, and the three alleged masterminds remain at large, leading Garamendi to ask for community help in tracking them down.

Fraud investigators seek information about the whereabouts of Byoung Hwan ``Brian'' Park, 41, of Los Angeles; Tae Won Kim, 42, of Los Angeles and Du Chul Kim, 42, of Granada Hills.

``It's incredible, the inventive minds of criminals,'' Garamendi said. ``It's also incredible the insurance companies would pay three checks in four months on the same car.''

The owners of TNS, 27-year-old Sedrak Kocharian and 49-year-old Tatul Kocharian, both of North Hollywood, were arrested Oct. 6. The insurance department also charged that Tujunga residents Zarik Garabedian and Alexan Zareh, Anzhela Karapetyan of Van Nuys, Gevork Keshisyan of North Hollywood and Narine Mkryan of Glendale were involved in making the phony claims.

Garamendi alleged that the ring took out policies on 28 luxury vehicles with 26 different insurers, damaged them and submitted photographs to companies for compensation for work supposedly completed at TNS. A 1999 Lexus was a particular favorite in the scheme, which the group allegedly submitted 28 times in a 20-month period, bringing them $300,000. One insurer paid out $26,000 for minor front-end damage, which the department believes occurred before the suspects even purchased the vehicle.

The suspects were not particularly nuanced in where they claimed accidents occurred, using the corner of Eighth Street and Kingsley Drive in Koreatown for 23 supposed crashes. And yet insurers kept paying, which Garamendi blamed on inadequate computer systems to track vehicle identification numbers.

The insurance department got word of the scheme after two adjusters from competing companies ran into each other at TNS and realized they were writing checks for the same car. Allstate Insurance Co., one of a slew of companies named in the suit, cheered the news of the arrests.

``Allstate regularly collaborates with the Department of Insurance and police departments,'' said company spokesman Rich Hallburg. ``We're obviously quite pleased when they come to fruition.''

After hearing from the insurers, the department contacted the National Insurance Crime Bureau, a nonprofit organization that the industry relies on to track fraud, in September 2001. Though often perceived as a victimless crime, Frank Scafidi, a spokesman with NICB's Sacramento office, said insurance fraud drives up premiums for all policyholders.

``We all pay at some point for the fraudulent activity,'' he said. ``People who engage in this, it affects their friends, their families and you and I. They think it's cool to beat the system and get something for nothing from the big cash cow of the insurance industry, but it ends up coming out of the pockets of their loved ones.''

The Department of Insurance is asking anyone with knowledge of the fugitives' whereabouts to call fraud investigator Kelly Mercer at [phone].

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com