Feds Charge San Francisco Towing Company Operator, Others With Insurance Fraud

CBS Bay Area

August 29, 2024

A controversial owner of several towing companies in San Francisco has been charged again by federal prosecutors with insurance fraud, three weeks after a similar case, along with other various criminal complaints, was filed against him.

In a statement Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California said that towing company operator Jose Vicente Badillo -- along with co-defendants Kirill Afanasyev, Jason Naraja, and Jaime Respicio -- were charged in an indictment with various crimes related to two schemes to defraud auto insurance companies.

Based on the indictment returned by a federal grand jury on Aug. 20, San Francisco residents Afanasyev and Badillo, and Pleasant Hill resident Respicio conspired to defraud a car insurance company by filing a hoax insurance claim on a wrecked car that Afanasyev bought in May 2019. When Afanasyev bought the car, it was allegedly not drivable with serious front-end damage.

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