A pair of Brooklyn fraudsters who staged car crashes on New York City highways to rake in insurance payouts are heading to prison after a viral TikTok video helped prosecutors unravel their scheme.
Jaime Huiracocha, 53, and Victor Murillo, 34, both of Brooklyn, pleaded guilty to insurance fraud charges and will serve at least one year and two years behind bars respectively, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Thursday. The sentences mark the downfall of a crew that collected more than $80,000 through calculated collisions before a teenager’s social media discovery changed everything.
Katz credited the breakthrough to her 15-year-old son, who showed her a TikTok clip of a Honda Civic brazenly backing into another vehicle on the Belt Parkway after a near-miss collision. “This original video, which happened to have been the third incident, not the first, was really key in us identifying, investigating and making sure we had the right people,” she told reporters. “We worked backwards from that viral video.”
The operation hinged on Murillo behind the wheel suddenly slamming the brakes to cause rear-end collisions, while Huiracocha trailed in a separate vehicle and coordinated timing over the phone, prosecutors said. After each crash, Murillo would scramble into a different seat while accomplices covered the rear window with plastic bags to hide him, then slip into a getaway vehicle as fellow fraudsters feigned injury.
Dashcam footage captured the conspirators holding the sides of their heads in mock agony, officials said.
The calculated crashes began Aug. 24, 2024, when Murillo, driving a Honda Civic, merged in front of a 47-year-old woman on the Belt Parkway. Dashcam video shows the Honda braking without warning, four men emerging, and the group later securing $79,000 in personal injury payouts from an insurance company, according to a law-enforcement source.
Murillo pulled an identical maneuver Oct. 3, 2024, causing a tractor-trailer to slam into a Nissan SUV he drove. The truck driver proved savvier than prior victims, brushing off a woman’s claim to be the SUV’s driver and calling out the apparent chicanery. “Do you think I’m stupid?” he asked in Spanish at one point. The SUV occupants still collected $5,500 in insurance payouts, the source said.
In the viral moment that ultimately doomed the ring, Murillo cut off a 31-year-old woman’s car along the Belt Parkway in another Honda Civic. When she managed to avoid rear-ending him, Murillo threw his vehicle into reverse and backed directly into her car. “Oh my, God, what is he doing?” the woman exclaimed after the deliberate crash. The Honda’s three passengers briefly threw a black plastic bag over the rear window to shield Murillo, then staggered out half-heartedly holding their heads while pointing phones at the woman’s car. Murillo was seen slinking from the Honda into a red Kia SUV that had pulled ahead. The resulting insurance claim was withdrawn after the video went viral, though prosecutors did not disclose the amount sought.
Before that final caper, Huiracocha met with fellow fraudsters inside an East New York medical clinic to give instructions on staging the crash, prosecutors said. Participants were told to send photos of the wrecked car to a woman and visit a different clinic in Glendale afterward, with Huiracocha promising thousands of dollars for their help.
Katz announced the sentences alongside Gov. Kathy Hochul, who had pushed car insurance reforms during state budget negotiations. “The fraudsters have been praying on a flawed system for a long time,” Hochul said. “Over the past five years, the state of New York has seen a tripling, a three-digit increase, in fraud-related staged crashes. In 2023, we had 1,700 staged crashes, the second highest in the nation.” She noted that New Yorkers pay more than $4,000 annually in car insurance, roughly $1,500 above the national average.
Two additional fraudsters in the scheme, Maikel Martinez and Ivon Matus-Martinez, pleaded guilty and will be sentenced next month.