Attorney Puts Career on the Line For a Bogus Claim
By Robert Warne - July 18, 2003 A Chula Vista workers’ compensation attorney risked all that he had ever worked for in an elaborate south of the border insurance carjacking scheme and never even got a peso for his efforts.
In fact after San Diego Superior Court Judge William D. Mudd got done with Juan Carlos Fox, July 15, the defendant is lucky he is still able to work as a paralegal at the firm where he at one time had a large office and was a partner.
An adjuster for a Mexican insurance company knew something was amiss four years ago when Fox claimed his armored BMW was carjacked in a busy Guadalajara shopping center. The adjuster denied the claim because he knew that only politicians, Mexican mafia members and guys like Antonio Banderas in movies like Desperado drive such cars.
A private investigator was hired to look into Fox’s claim. The pieces of the claims puzzle started to snap together once the investigator realized that Fox’s claim was almost identical to Joseph Amirkhanian’s who he was investigating for a different company.
Amirkhanian claimed his armored Mercedes-Benz was stolen the day before Fox’s, from the same place.
When officials finally caught up with Fox they found out that he still had the BMW and that it wasn’t bulletproof.
Authorities also discovered that Fox and Amirkhanian had another partner named Charles Ray, who also made a claim for a stolen Benz.
Following the investigation Mexican authorities turned the case over to the U.S. for prosecution.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Fox knew that what he was doing was illegal in Mexico, but that he didn't think he was breaking any U.S. laws.
Fox pled guilty to conspiracy to commit grand theft and was sentenced to 180 days in a work-furlough program. Amirkhanian was sentenced to 60 days in a work-furlough program as well.
Ray served 23 days in jail and was put on probation.
According to the Union-Tribune, Mudd said that despite the sophistication of Fox’s criminal enterprise, he never made a dime and it cost him years of education and significant professional experience.
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