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Everett, Revere and Saugus residents charged with others in connection with three-year investigation of case
District Attorney Marian Ryan, Everett Chief of Police Steven Mazzie and Chief of Investigations of the Massachusetts Insurance Fraud Bureau Katherine Mulligan have announced the indictment of six individuals in connection with allegedly filing false and fraudulent insurance claims through their business, Riviera Auto Body, which is located on Bow Street in Everett. Four of the defendants have been arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court.
—Fabio Rodrigo Jordao Correa, 31, of Saugus, has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit larceny over $1,200, six counts of larceny over $1,200, one count of common and notorious thief, 11 counts of false or fraudulent insurance claims and one count of identity fraud.
—Jose Manuel Gordon, 49, of Roxbury, has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit larceny over $1,200 and one count of receiving stolen property.
—Tabajara Alves Ribeiro, 23, of Saugus, has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit larceny over $1,200.
—Wanda Greene, 56, of Revere, has been charged with receiving a bribe as a public employee, receiving unlawful gratuities as a public employee and receiving improper compensation as a public employee.
Two other individuals were indicted by the grand jury and are fugitives:
—Jhon Alexander Lopera Munera, 40, of Revere, charged with one count of conspiracy to commit larceny over $1,200, six counts of larceny over $1,200, one count of common and notorious thief, 15 counts of false or fraudulent insurance claims, one count of bribery of a public employee, one count of giving unlawful gratuities to a public employee and one count of promising or offering improper compensation to a public employee.
—Edwin Alexander Lopera Munera, 33, of Pawtucket, R.I., charged with one count of conspiracy to commit larceny over $1,200.
Both of those individuals are believed to have fled to Colombia.
During a two-year investigation by the District Attorney’s Office, the Everett Police and the Massachusetts Insurance Fraud Bureau, authorities learned that an auto-body shop, FT Auto or Riviera Auto in Everett, was allegedly at the center of a wide-ranging scheme to defraud multiple insurance carriers. This scheme operated for multiple years and was allegedly masterminded by defendants Jhon Lopera and Fabio Correa. The defendants allegedly orchestrated the submission of scores of insurance claims for customers of the shop that defrauded the insurance carriers of in excess of $1 million in payments.
The claims were false in a variety of ways: They often included descriptions of automobile collisions that had never occurred, or collisions in which the damage to the vehicles were inflated, or damage to the vehicle was done at the shop itself and was not the result of a collision. The claims also listed persons as drivers of vehicles involved in the collisions who were simply aliases of the defendants or stolen identities appropriated by the defendants for use in the fraudulent scheme.
As part of the scheme, defendant Lopera allegedly cultivated a relationship with defendant Greene, who was a clerk at the RMV branch in Revere and performed RMV queries and transactions at Lopera’s request and received electronic payments and gift cards from Lopera as compensation for her services to him.
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A scheduling hearing was set for Monday, at which time a trial date and other events in the case were to be set. The Assistant District Attorney assigned to this case is Graham Van Epps.
