Utah Man Nabbed after Staging 23 Auto Accidents over 5 Years

Utah-man Navid Monjazeb faces 22 counts of insurance fraud, reckless endangerment, and other crimes spanning five years and at least 23 known accidents – with the same three vehicles.

Charges resulting from a months-long investigation conducted by Utah’s Insurance Fraud Division were filed against Monjazeb on Wednesday through the Utah Attorney General’s Office. Monjazeb was arrested and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail that morning.

Monjazeb was charged with pattern of unlawful activity, a second-degree felony; 12 counts of insurance fraud, all third-degree felonies; 2 counts of forgery, both third-degree felonies; and 7 counts of reckless endangerment, all class-A misdemeanors.

Between Jan. 5, 2010 and Dec. 22, 2015, Monjazeb, while driving the same three vehicles, was involved in at least 23 auto accidents, according to investigators. Many of the accidents occurred at the same location with similar circumstances, and all in the Salt Lake County area. In nearly all cases, Monjazeb intentionally collided with or placed his vehicle in a position where the accident was a complete certainty, investigators say.

Monjazeb allegedly would aggressively assert that the other driver was at fault and would intimidate them to the point that they would sign prepared statements that they were at fault in the accident. Monjazeb would push the victims for a cash settlement without calling police, and when police were called, they placed the victim at fault based on the assertions of Monjazeb, according to investigators.

Monjazeb’s vehicles all had pre-existing damages which he blamed on the accident – the victim vehicles usually had very minimal damage with repairs being paid for out of pocket – so Monjazeb’s vehicles had thousands of dollars in damages paid for by the victim’s insurance company, investigators say.

Monjazeb allegedly collected the insurance money while electing to not have the damage repaired or claiming to have repaired the vehicle himself, and he exaggerated his damages and provided forged repair documents to increase his payouts from insurance, according to investigators.

Insurance companies paid for the same damages from accident to accident. Monjazeb was reportedly paid a total of more than $55,000 from insurance carriers alone. It is unknown how many additional accidents may have occurred wherein police and insurance carriers were not contacted and victims paid Monjazeb in cash.

Assisting with the investigation were agents with the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

Topics Auto Fraud