In Vancouver - Criminal networking begins in highschool

Auto insurance fraud is one of the more popular rackets in Vancouver, and the police are completely unable to deal with it. Thousands of people have pulled it off with little effort, so now even the teens are taking it up. Recently I found a fascinating case summarized in the Sun and The Province (online) but with insufficient detail - just a few paragraphs trumpeting a successful lawsuit for ICBC insurance fraud. But wait! Lawsuit? Should not organized insurance fraud lead to arrests and jail? Not in B.C. Reports indicated that the ring was not hauled into a criminal court where the case belonged, but had played out in the civil court. Shades of O.J. Simpson! Not criminally guilty, but financially responsible!

What irked me more was that I had to go to eight different media sites (newspapers and radio) to piece together the story for myself. No single report contained a complete summary. Each media company redacted the 24 page BC Supreme Court handout down to 2-3 paragraphs, enough to suit their individual audience. The deaf and blind in most cases, I suppose.

The Spreme Court judgement was released on February 29, 2008. It turned out that the Canadian Press filed on the story March 3, and several local radio stations and newspapers gave it kick for a few days after that. Only two outlets published the names of the members of the criminal conspiracy. You can draw your own conclusions on that.

Jennifer McFee of the BURNABY NEWSLEADER had the boldest lead:
"BURNABY FRAUDSTERS BUSTED"
"A Burnaby-based crime ring has been busted for staging car crashes in an insurance fraud scheme and ordered to repay over $500,000 in false claims and interest." The details involved a group of ten highschool friends who had organized themselves to mine ICBC gold. Their crimes were committed while they were attending Burnaby and New Westminster secondary schools. The news stories did not discuss how many of them actually graduated or who are "known to police".

The front entrance of Burnaby South Secondary School. We now learn that BSSS is where some students are initiated into the rackets.

Between 1998 and 2001 the students staged a series of eleven accidents and then proceeded to file injury claims. One pal would steal a car and then meet his buddy at a predetermined location. He would then ram the car into that of his friend, and then flee the scene on foot. The "victim" would file a false accident claim and add a claim for physical injury. The accidents were staged in Burnaby, Coquitlam, New Westminster, Vancouver and West Vancouver. Seven of the defendants, all of them male, had attended Burnaby South Secondary School in the late 1990s, while two more attended New Westminster Secondary School. The Alma maters of the culprit was germane to the case assembled by the ICBC SIU.

"The evidence is that each of the defendants knows some or all of the other defendants through high school or other associations. A number of the defendants, Mr. Husseinian, Mr. Ahmadi, Mr. Mehr-Abadi, Mr. Jafari, Mr. Milad Khorasani, Mr. Hafez-Ghoran, Mr. Samimifar and Mr. Saviz Rezai, attended Burnaby South Secondary School ("BSSS") during the years 1997 - 2000. As well, Mr. Rastegar Rahbar’s son, Hiva "Tony" Rahbar, attended BSSS during that time, and was friends with Mr. Husseinian.

[6] Mr. Ali Malek and Mr. Shardi-Manaheji went to high school together at New Westminster Secondary School. They were both friends with Mr. Jafari and knew Mr. Mehr-Abadi." [BC Supreme Court trial record]

ICBC investigators discovered the pattern of claims involving “fleeing thief accidents”. Several claimants knew each other from attending high school together in either Burnaby or New Westminster. Inconsistencies in their statements emerged, leading ICBC to sue the group in civil court.

The 24 page handed down by a B.C. Supreme Court Justice was firm in its wording. "I have determined all of the defendants … have staged one or more accidents." Only one of the nine high school pals faces criminal charges. In addition to giving back the money the stole, they have all been ordered to pay ICBC punitive damages ranging from $3,500 to $75,000 in the case of Dawood Shahin Husseinian, who was implicated in four of the crashes. (As this fellow steadfastly refused to appear at the trial, I doubt very much that ICBC will get a penny out of him.)

"The evidence is that Mr. Husseinian worked at several used car dealerships in Burnaby after completing high school in 2000, including Canadian Westcoast Auto, Saman Auto, Zodiac Auto, GT Auto, Miracle Auto and Alious Auto. Mr. Husseinian’s evidence on his examination for discovery was that he worked as a salesman at Canadian Westcoast Auto in 2001 and 2002. On April 8, 2002, ICBC registered a transfer showing that Canadian Westcoast Auto purchased a vehicle from Samir Saleh, which had been involved in a fleeing thief accident less than three months earlier with a vehicle owned by Mr. Husseinian’s sister, Sara.
[55] Although Mr. Husseinian told ICBC he was working for a flight agency named Paraz which was owned by Mr. Ahmadi’s father in December 1999, he has never provided any documents indicating he was working for that agency." [BC Supreme Court trial record]

Kelly Sinoski of the Vancouver SUN provided a complete list of the ten young men, as did the Chinese language MING PAO. They are:

Dawood Shahin Husseinian
Ahmad Ahmadi
Dawood Abdullah Malek
Ali Malek
Amir Mehr-Abadi
Shahin Shardi-Manaheji
Majid Samimifar
Seyamak Rohani
Dawood Jafari
Rategar Harbar

Jeff Nagel of the Surrey North Delta Leader quoted from the ruling of B.C. Justice Laura Gerow. She wrote, "The conduct of the defendants in deliberately participating in an extensive scheme to defraud ICBC of significant insurance monies is, in my view, the type of reprehensible conduct that calls for an award of punitive damages."

And the excellent Team who put these outlaw ring out of business?

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Laura B. Gerow is an expert in insurance law. She was formerly Insurance Law Group Chair, with the firm of Harper Grey, Barristers & Solicitors. Gerow was appointed to the Bench in 2002.

Counsel for ICBC in the Litigation were Michael Hewitt and Ian Jones.

The very detailed 24 page finding of the court is here:
2008 BCSC 241 Insurance Corporation of British Columbia v. Husseinian