(Bloomberg) -- Former National Football League wide receiver Jeff Webb is accused of being ringleader of a group that staged car collisions to defraud insurance companies.
Webb, 34, who played for the Kansas City Chiefs, was arrested on multiple felony counts following crashes that resulted in $70,000 in claims and a total potential loss of $139,000, the California Department of Insurance said Wednesday in a statement. As the leader, Webb allegedly received a bulk of the money paid by the victim companies, which included Progressive Corp., York Risk Services Group, Rental Insurance Services and Hertz Claim Management.
“California is ground zero for staged auto collisions," Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said in the statement. “Organized crime rings are responsible for the majority of staged collisions, which are costly to insurers and consumers.”
The group supposedly purchased insurance policies for privately owned cars and rental vehicles, and then purposefully crashed them. The suspects requested medical help even though the vehicles only suffered minor damage, according to the statement. The department was alerted by one of the insurance companies that suspected fraud.
To contact the reporters on this story: Katherine Chiglinsky in New York at kchiglinsky@bloomberg.net, Agnel Philip in New York at aphilip19@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dan Kraut at dkraut2@bloomberg.net, Dan Reichl, Steven Crabill
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