What Happened
Two Brooklyn men have been sentenced to prison for their roles in a staged-accident scheme that included a deliberate crash targeting a 47-year-old Massapequa motorist on the Belt Parkway and a second collision that went viral after dashcam footage captured the driver reversing into a Queens woman’s vehicle, according to Newsday.
Victor Murillo, 34, the driver in three documented crashes in 2024, was sentenced Aug. 3, 2026 to two years in prison. He pleaded guilty to second-degree staging a motor vehicle accident, fourth-degree insurance fraud, and fifth-degree conspiracy. Jaime Huiracocha, 53, who acted as a lookout and directed the crashes from a separate vehicle, was sentenced Aug. 24, 2026 to one-to-three years in prison after pleading guilty in May to third-degree insurance fraud and fifth-degree conspiracy. Attorneys for both men did not respond to comment requests, Newsday reported.
In each of the three incidents, Murillo’s method was the same: cut off an unsuspecting driver in traffic, then brake suddenly to force a rear-end collision, according to Queens County District Attorney Melinda Katz. After each crash, Murillo climbed from the driver’s seat to the front passenger seat, a move prosecutors say he used in all three incidents to obscure his role as driver. In two of the crashes, passengers in the backseat covered the rear window with a black tarp to block dashcam views of the seat switch.
The Massapequa victim was struck first. On Aug. 24, 2024, the 47-year-old woman was driving westbound on the Belt Parkway near the Erskine Street exit in Brooklyn when Murillo, operating a silver Honda Civic, merged into the lane directly in front of her and stopped, forcing the collision. Murillo immediately fled in a getaway car. The remaining occupants of his vehicle exited, feigned injuries, and were then directed by Huiracocha to visit specific medical clinics in Queens for treatment, prosecutors said. Those occupants have also pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
Nearly two months later, on Oct. 16, 2024, Murillo staged a crash on the Belt Parkway in Rosedale, near the Valley Stream border, that would be captured on the victim’s dashcam and spread widely on social media. The car behind Murillo braked in time to avoid the initial collision, so Murillo reversed his vehicle and deliberately smashed into it. He then switched seats with the tarp obscuring the rear window before exiting the car and jumping into a waiting red Kia, which left the scene. Huiracocha drove a separate vehicle, radioing or directing Murillo on timing and execution in all three staged events, according to Katz.
In each case, the crew submitted claims to Allstate Insurance. One injury claim alone exceeded $79,000, prosecutors said. Investigators linked Murillo and Huiracocha to a minimum of three staged crashes in Queens and Brooklyn across 2024. The two men also recruited additional participants with promises of cash payouts from the insurance proceeds.
At a news conference Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, DA Katz described the target as “an entire ecosystem of people” who profit from staging accidents. “They are attorneys that help them with the insurance companies,” Katz said. “They are the people in the medical field. They are individuals who faked their injuries. It’s an entire ecosystem of profit.” Gov. Kathy Hochul, who attended the conference, said the State Department of Financial Services received 43,000 suspicious reports related to auto insurance fraud in 2025, an 80% increase from five years earlier.
Location & Road Context
The three crashes were staged on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn and Queens, a high-traffic, limited-access road running along the western and southern edges of Long Island and through the New York City boroughs. The Aug. 24, 2024 crash near the Erskine Street exit in Brooklyn targeted westbound traffic. The Oct. 16, 2024 crash occurred in Rosedale, the Queens neighborhood that borders Valley Stream in Nassau County.
The Massapequa victim would have been a regular Belt Parkway commuter traveling from Nassau County toward Brooklyn or beyond. The road’s volume and merge-heavy traffic pattern made it a logical target for the scheme.
Investigation & Legal Proceedings
Murillo’s three guilty pleas, covering second-degree staging a motor vehicle accident, fourth-degree insurance fraud, and fifth-degree conspiracy, resolved his criminal exposure from all three 2024 incidents. Huiracocha pleaded guilty in May 2026 to third-degree insurance fraud and fifth-degree conspiracy, a lesser charge set reflecting his role directing rather than driving. Additional participants from Murillo’s vehicle who feigned injuries have also pleaded guilty and are pending sentencing, Katz’s office confirmed, per Newsday.
The Queens County DA’s office framed the prosecutions as part of a wider enforcement push against organized fraud networks involving law firms and medical providers. Hochul signed a package of auto insurance reform bills this year, saying they could reduce premiums by as much as 10%, aimed specifically at staged-accident fraud after the Department of Financial Services logged the 43,000 suspicious-activity reports in 2025.
Broader Impact
The 43,000 suspicious auto insurance fraud reports flagged by the State Department of Financial Services in 2025, an 80% increase over five years, represent documented, statewide volume, not a trend inferred from one case. New York’s new reform legislation targets the fraud network Katz described: the lawyers who file inflated claims, the clinics that treat patients who were never injured, and the recruiters who promise cash to crash participants. Murillo and Huiracocha’s sentencing are among the first to reach a prison term under that enforcement pressure, Katz’s office said Thursday.