Two men were sentenced Thursday for staging crashes on New York City highways to get fraudulent insurance payouts.
Jaime Huiracocha, 53, and Victor Murillo, 34, pleaded guilty to charges relating to the crashes that happened between August and October 2024.
Gov. Kathy Hochul and Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced the details of the investigation Thursday.
Prosecutors said Huiracocha and Murillo recruited others to participate in three separate crashes, enticing them with promises of thousands in cash.
Murillo was the designated driver. He would slam on the brakes of the car he was driving to intentionally cause the driver behind him to rear-end the car, prosecutors said. One time, the car behind Murillo braked to avoid a collision, but Murillo reversed into the vehicle to cause a crash, prosecutors said. That incident was caught on dashcam video.
Meanwhile, Huiracocha…
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