Viral TikTok video showing staged car crash in massive insurance fraud scheme leads to prison terms for 2 NYC men

Jaime Huiracocha, 53, and Victor Murillo, 34, pleaded guilty to insurance fraud charges. Huiracocha will serve at least one year in prison, and Murillo will serve at least two, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Thursday.

Katz said the viral TikTok clip shown to her by her teen son, which depicted the third of three crashes staged by the two men, jump-started the investigation. “This original video, which happened to have been the third incident, not the first, was really key in us identifying, investigating and making sure we had the right people,” she said, per the New York Post. “We worked backwards from that viral video.”

Prosecutors said that the two men planned for Murillo to drive and suddenly step on the brakes, causing the person behind them to rear-end their vehicle. Prosecutors said that Huiracocha would trail in a separate vehicle, communicating with Murillo on how and when to stage the collision.

After each of the crashes, Murillo would then climb into a different seat, with other passengers in the car covering the rear window with plastic bags to hide him. As his fellow fraudsters pretended to be injured, Murillo would then climb into a getaway vehicle, prosecutors said.

The first crash took place on August 24, 2024, when Murillo, driving a Honda Civic, merged in front of a 47-year-old woman on the Belt Parkway and braking in front of her. Four men, including Murillo, climbed out of the vehicle, with dashcam footage capturing the incident. A law enforcement source told the New York Post that the scheme brought $79,000 in personal injury payouts from an insurance company.

The second took place on October 3, 2024, with Murillo causing a tractor-trailer truck to crash into the back of his Nissan SUV. Video from after the crash showed the truck driver being suspicious of what happened, brushing off the woman’s claims that she had been the one driving. The truck driver asked in spanish, “Do you think I’m stupid?” That case brought in $5,000 in insurance payouts.

The third crash, which the viral TikTok depicted, showed a Honda Civic being driven by Murillo cutting off a 31-year-old woman on the Belt Parkway. While the woman was able to avoid crashing into Murillo, he threw the car into reverse and backed into her car.

"Oh my, God, what is he doing,” the female driver was heard saying. Passengers were then seen throwing a plastic bag over the rear window to shield Murillo, and three passengers climbed out of the vehicle, holding their heads as if injured and pointing their phones at the woman’s car. Murillo was seen climbing into a red Kia SUV while the other three lingered around the woman’s car.

Prosecutors said the third crash had led to an insurance claim for an unreleased amount. The source told the outlet that while the claim was ready to be paid out, it was withdrawn after the video went viral.

Two other men in the case, Maikel Martinez and Ivon Matus-Martinez, have pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in September. Before the last crash, prosecutors said Huiracocha met with other scheme members in an East New York medical clinic to give them instructions on how to stage the crash. They were instructed to send photos of the crash to a woman, and then go to a clinic in Glendale.