<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-0"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Three Southern California residents were sentenced to jail after masterminding a scheme in which they staged fake bear attacks on their luxury cars, then collected more than $141,000 in insurance payouts, officials said on Thursday.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">To carry out the attacks, the residents had a person in a bear suit climb into the cars and use claw-like kitchen utensils to leave scratch marks, the California Department of Insurance said.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">The Los Angeles County residents then filed claims to defraud three different insurance companies, the department said.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Two of the defendants — Ruben Tamrazian, 26, and Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32, both of Glendale, Calif. — were sentenced to 180 days in jail, or about six months, and ordered to pay more than $50,000 each in restitution, the department said in a <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/2026/release017-2026.cfm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">news release</a>.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-1"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-1"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Another defendant, Alfiya Zuckerman, 39, of Valley Village in Los Angeles, was also sentenced to 180 days in jail, while a restitution amount is yet to be determined. All three had previously pleaded no contest to felony insurance fraud.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">A fourth defendant, Ararat Chirkinian, 39, also of Glendale, has a preliminary court hearing scheduled for September, the department said.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">It was not immediately clear if the defendants had lawyers. Court records for the case were not immediately available.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">The California Department of Insurance began its <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/14/us/fake-bear-insurance-fraud-charges.html" title="">investigation</a>, called Operation Bear Claw, after an insurance company flagged a suspicious claim about a bear riffling through a 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost on Jan. 28, 2024, in Lake Arrowhead, Calif.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">The defendants claimed that the bear had damaged the interior of their Rolls-Royce, with <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://vimeo.com/1029340693" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">photos</a> they submitted to the insurance company showing scratched seats and doors.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-3"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-2"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Video footage submitted with the claim and released by the department shows what appears to be a bear crawling around in the back seat of the Rolls-Royce and swatting at the dashboard.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Investigators later discovered fraudulent claims submitted to two other insurance companies that claimed a bear had damaged the interior of two Mercedes-Benzes on the same date and at the same location.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Nearly identical videos of the Mercedes-Benz break-ins, which appear to have been taken by a surveillance camera in a nearby driveway, also show the bear opening a car door and rummaging around in the front and back seats.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">After its investigation, the department <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.insurance.ca.gov/0400-news/0100-press-releases/2024/release056-2024.cfm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">concluded</a> that the culprit was not, in fact, a particularly nimble bear. The defendants were arrested in November 2024.</p><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">Detectives found an elaborate brown bear costume and meat-shredding handles, known as meat claws, while executing a search warrant.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-5"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-3"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-ac37hb evys1bk0">A biologist from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife also reviewed video footage of the bear’s activities and determined that the animal was “clearly a human in a bear suit,” the California Department of Insurance said.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="RelatedLinksBlock-7"><div data-testid="lazy-loader"></div></div>