Fraudulent Windshield Claims Leads to Arizona Identity Theft Arrest

An investigation by the Arizona Department of Insurance led to the arrest and felony conviction of Michael Swedo.

Swedo pled guilty for submitting fraudulent claims to insurance companies and stealing the identity of an individual to set up a false business to conduct his scam.

He was sentenced to serve 5 years in prison, pay a $5,000 fine and $83,356 in restitution to 16 different insurance companies.

Between November 2010 and April 2011, Swedo submitted hundreds of phony claims to numerous insurance companies for windshield replacements using the identity of Duane Cipolla and Cipolla Auto Glass.

With the help of other suspects, Swedo obtained old glass repair work orders from at least 15 different glass companies. These work orders contained client names, addresses, phone numbers, vehicle information, and insurance policy information, which Swedo used to file fraudulent windshield replacement claims with multiple insurance companies. Posing both as the insured and as an employee of Cipolla Auto Glass, Swedo stole over $83,000 from 16 insurance companies.

Source: Arizona Department of Insurance