Post by Scumhunter on Jun 24, 2015 1:52:07 GMT -5
(Above photo credit: amw.com archives)
Fugitive Profile as of June 24th, 2015: (based on 2011 AMW archive)
Sex: Male
Race: White
Current Age: 45-47
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 180 lbs.
Hair (Color, Description, Facial Hair): Brown. Clean shaven in photos
Eyes: Blue
Other Phys. Characteristics: Eyes listed as "blue-grayish" color
Last Seen: Brooklyn , NY
Other Possible Locations:
-Ukraine
-Russia
-New Jersey
-New York
-Florida
Who to call if you've seen him: Based on wanted location/story description our advice would be to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS or the FBI.
Alleged insurance scammer Sergey Birkin was aired on the September 24th, 2005 episode of America's Most Wanted. Below is the archive description of the case:
Cops Call Him The Russian Mob Insurance Scam King of New York
When Sergey Birkin joined the Russian-speaking immigrant community in Brooklyn's Brighton Beach neighborhood, he quickly took a number of shortcuts in order to achieve the American dream. FBI agents familiar with Birkin's checkered past say Birkin never intended to make a legitimate living in the U.S. like most of his fellow Russian expats.
Birkin hooked up with the Russian criminal underworld in America and began getting fake Florida driver's licenses and selling them in New York City. From there cops say Birkin graduated to posing as an injured passenger in staged insurance scam accidents. Eventually, cops say he learned the auto insurance scam game so well that he graduated to being a "runner" or "kingpin" in this lucrative con. Then he expanded the scope and profitbablitiy of his operation by acquiring cars and recruiting "passengers" for accidents, registering the cars with insurance companies known for large payoffs, and organizing a network of shady medical clinics, x-ray facilities and personal injury lawyers to help build "staged accident" fraud into one of the largest niches of insurance fraud in the United States.
Birkin and his co-conspirators functioned on the basic principle of numbers. If they could put five people each in two cars for a staged accident, the total payoff from the insurance companies for "injuries and treatment" could run as high as $250,000 per vehicle. Their plan was to continue scamming over and over, day in and day out, borough to borough -- across NYC and northern New Jersey.
Auto insurance fraud is a national problem that has reached epidemic proportions since the late 1990's and the New York City metropolitan area became the epicenter -- a place where dozens, if not hundreds of suspicious accidents went down every day. Agents say Birkin and his cronies were part of that reason. Authorities say Birkin and his buddies didn't just crash into cars driven by their co-conspirators. They also engaged in the direct targeting of innocent motorists who were simply driving along minding the rules of the road, until the mobile scammers zeroed in and caused an accident with the unsuspecting victim.
Any Motorist Can Be Targeted
In March 2003, a grandmother named Alice Ross was driving to see her grandchildren in Queens when she was targeted by auto crash scam artists who stalked the road, then sideswiped her car. Alice Ross' car veered into a tree and she was killed.
Agents say Birkin and his Russian mob associates operate insurance scams in multiple states with dozens upon dozens of persons participating in a vast network of crooked doctors and lawyers aiding the ongoing criminal bilking of insurance companies.
In 2001, agents say Birkin arranged an accident in Manhattan, but he had no idea that both of the drivers he'd recruited for the crash were actually working as informants for the FBI. A surviellance camera filmed the accident from start to finish. Then, the unsuspecting Birkin directed his "accident victims" to bogus medical clinics that were set up specifically as insurance claim factories to push bodies into the system for dummy bills for physical therapy, chiropractic work and x-rays. The FBI lowered the boom on Birkin in June 2001. He was charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud. Unfortunately for the feds, Birkin made bail and vanished back into the Russian mob underworld.
According to the FBI, in New York alone, insurance claims from fake accidents are estimated to run as high as a billion dollars a year. That fraud costs the average New York state motorist an additional $300.00 per year in higher auto insurance costs.
Thoughts? As we can see with Alice Ross, this type of scam can also have deadly consequences. And as for those of you who wonder why your car insurance rates keep going up, you can thank guys like Sergey Birkin. I guess the key to if he can be caught is if he fled to the Ukraine or remained in the states where besides the tri-state area, Florida is also listed as a possibility.
As far as I can tell, Birkin is still at large as of this posting date (6/23/2015). If anyone has proof otherwise, please feel free to let us know.
web.archive.org/web/20110907061413/http://www.amw.com/fugitives/case.cfm?id=28510#case
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