The defendants staged attacks by having a person dress up in a bear costume and pretending it was an actual bear. They filed an insurance claim in 2024 claiming a bear damaged a 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost, providing a video of the alleged bear attack inside the car parked at Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino mountains. The ursine figure in the video was a human in a bear costume, and investigators discovered two additional claims of a person performing the same act in two more vehicles, each Mercedeses. The specific evidence that led investigators to suspect the bear attacks were staged has not been disclosed, nor have the exact dates of the staged incidents or when the insurance claims were filed.
A California department of fish and wildlife biologist reviewed the videos and determined it was clearly a human in a bear suit. Detectives found the bear costume seen in the video while executing a search warrant on the home of one of the suspects. The total insurance money the defendants were attempting to claim across all three vehicles remains unknown.
Zuckerman and Tamrazian were each ordered to pay more than $52,000 in restitution, while Muradkhanyan's restitution amount was not immediately determined. A fourth suspect, Ararat Chirkinian, 39, is scheduled to return to court in September for a preliminary hearing, though his current legal status or charges have not been detailed. It is unclear if there are any other suspects or individuals involved in the scheme beyond the four named defendants.
California State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara stated that insurance fraud is a serious crime that drives up costs for consumers. According to Lara, no scheme is too outrageous for the California department of insurance to investigate. He added that what may have looked unbelievable turned out to be exactly that, and now those responsible are being held accountable. Lara also said his department's investigators uncovered the facts, exposed this scam and helped bring these defendants to justice.