no one is surprised to learn that an infamous San Francisco tow truck company intentionally wrecked cars to cash in on insurance money.

charged with money laundering and fraud after federal prosecutors said they purchased a wrecked car, then cashed a $34,000 insurance check for it after falsely claiming they were in an accident. The couple own and operate multiple towing companies in San Francisco

The new indictment alleges that Badillo loaded a vehicle carrier with four cars and in August 2019 purposefully drove them off the road in San Mateo County. After Badillo reported the supposed accident to his insurance company, and he, Afanasyev, and Naraja made false or misleading statements to a representative of the company, according to the indictment.

The insurance company denied Badillo’s claim as fraudulent but paid one of his towing companies $5,210 for recovering, towing, and storing the vehicles involved.

As part of a second scheme, Afanasyev, Badillo, and Respicio are accused of submitting a fraudulent insurance claim on a wrecked car that Afanasyev purchased in May 2019. The indictment alleges that the car was not drivable when Afanasyev bought it. Respicio obtained an insurance policy for the vehicle before Afanasyev, posing as Respicio, falsely reported to the insurance company in August 2019 that he had been in a single-car accident, authorities said. Badillo is alleged to have falsely documented that his company towed the car after the fake accident.

The insurance company approved the claim and sent Respicio a check for $47,856.34, according to the indictment.

https://sfstandard.com/2024/08/28/specialty-towing-owner-new-insurance-fraud-charges