Fraud News: Contractor Sandy Scam, Crash Scheme, Cocaine Cowboy’s Auto Theft Ring

A contractor who performed work after Superstorm Sandy has been criminally charged with defrauding multiple New Jersey homeowners.

State Attorney General Christopher Porrino announced charges Tuesday against Jersey Pride Home Renovations and owner William Wolford.

The company based in Ocean County allegedly used deceptive practices to pressure customers into signing contracts, abandoned some projects and didn’t correct substandard work that failed to pass municipal inspections.

A criminal complaint also alleged the company performed home elevations without being legally registered for that type of work.

Wolford referred questions Tuesday to his attorney, who didn’t immediately return a phone message.

The complaint seeks to have the company pay back homeowners, return federal funds and pay civil penalties.

A Tacoma, Wash., man will serve 30 days of confinement after pleading guilty to attempted insurance fraud and obstructing a law enforcement officer.

Vyacheslav Vizitiv was also sentenced to 334 days in prison, suspended for two years, and $700 in court fees in Pierce County Superior Court on Dec. 27. He is allowed to serve the 30 days of confinement under electronic home monitoring.

According to the investigation conducted by Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s Criminal Investigations Unit (CIU), Vizitiv canceled the insurance on his 2002 Acura RSX on Dec. 10, 2014, because he was trying to sell it. On Dec. 24, Vizitiv was in a collision with another vehicle. He reinstated his policy with GEICO on Dec. 25 and submitted an online claim on Dec. 27, saying the Acura was damaged while parked at his apartment complex. On Dec. 28, the owner of the vehicle he hit filed a claim with GEICO for the damage to her car, including the actual date of the accident and the license plate number of Vizitiv’s Acura.

GEICO referred the case to Kreidler’s CIU, as required by law.

Vizitiv was charged in February 2016 with one count of first-degree identity theft and one count of filing a false insurance claim. He failed to appear in Pierce County Superior Court in March 2016 to face the charges and spent more than a year on Kreidler’s insurance fraud most wanted. In August 2017, Kreidler’s detectives arrested Vizitiv at a relative’s home in Pierce County.

A pilot who flew loads of drugs for Colombian cartels during Miami’s “cocaine cowboys” era is going on trial in an auto fraud case.

Jury selection begins Tuesday in the case of 72-year-old Mickey Munday, who has become well known through his open bragging about his past in interviews, social media posts and starring role in the documentary “Cocaine Cowboys.”

Some of Munday’s past likely will come up in the trial. Prosecutors say it’s relevant because Munday’s alleged role in the auto fraud ring was transporting and hiding the stolen vehicles, similar to his work in the 1980s for Pablo Escobar’s Medellin cartel and later the Cali cartel.

He served about nine years in prison during the 1990s after pleading guilty to smuggling charges involving many tons of cocaine.

By CURT ANDERSON, AP