Auto Insurance Fraud

Mark Vogler
Staff Writer, The Eagle Tribune

LAWRENCE — Attorney Jorge A. Elias took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes and then closed them as if to hide evidence of any sadness he felt yesterday while being led from a third-floor courtroom to begin serving a 2<1/2>-year jail term for his role in the city's once-thriving auto insurance fraud industry.

"Clearly, the crime of fraudulent auto claims has been a major problem in the Lawrence area for years — decades," Superior Court Judge Howard J. Whitehead said before approving the sentence. Elias, 59, of Salem, Mass., was found guilty by a 12-member jury of conspiracy to commit auto insurance fraud.

"These crimes could not succeed without the involvement of the lawyer ... Mr. Elias was a key participant. ... He was acting as an instigator and a facilitator of these claims," the judge said.

After listening to lawyers' arguments and five prosecution witnesses over portions of four days, the six-man, six-woman jury deliberated nearly five hours before reaching the verdict.

Elias became personally involved in scams to set up staged accidents so he could profit from phony injury claims as part of an illegal enterprise so rampant that Lawrence was once nicknamed "the auto insurance fraud capital of Massachusetts."

Elias is the first person convicted and sentenced to jail of the 16 people — including three lawyers and four chiropractors — who were indicted in fall 2004 by a special grand jury investigating auto insurance fraud. At the outset of the trial, he faced a possible prison sentence of up to five years and a maximum of $10,000 if convicted.