Bear-Suit Luxury Car Scam Leads to Fraud Sentences

Three Los Angeles County residents were sentenced after prosecutors said they used a bear suit to fake damage inside luxury cars and collect insurance money. (ktla.com) Alfiya Zuckerman, 39, of Valley Village, and Ruben Tamrazian, 26, and Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32, both of Glendale, pleaded no contest to felony insurance fraud, California authorities said on April 16, 2026. Each got 180 days in jail through a weekend program and two years of supervised probation. (laist.com) Investigators said the group submitted claims tied to a Jan. 28, 2024 incident in Lake Arrowhead, saying a bear had entered a 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost and torn up the interior. Detectives later linked two more claims from the same date and place involving a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350. (ktla.com) The California Department of Insurance said insurers lost $141,839 in the scheme. Zuckerman was ordered to pay $55,360 in restitution, Tamrazian $52,268, and Muradkhanyan’s amount had not yet been set. (ktla.com) The case turned when an insurance company flagged the first claim as suspicious and investigators reviewed the video sent to support it. A biologist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife concluded the animal in the footage was a person in a bear costume, not a real bear. (ktla.com) Detectives later served a search warrant at the suspects’ home and said they recovered the bear suit used in the videos. The department named the investigation “Operation Bear Claw.” (laist.com) A fourth defendant, Ararat Chirkinian, 39, of Glendale, is due back in court for a preliminary hearing in September 2026. The three sentenced defendants have already been convicted, while Chirkinian’s case is still pending. (ktla.com) Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said the department treated the case as a fraud investigation, not a wildlife mystery. The supposed bear that crawled through a Rolls-Royce and two Mercedes ended up as evidence in a criminal case. (ktla.com)