MPI, Police, Bust $1.2 Million Fraud Ring

Terri Goveia | August 18, 2009

Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) has brought down an intricate auto fraud ring in what the public insurer says is “the biggest fraud investigation in its history.”

Members of the ring staged racked up roughly $1.2 million in exposure for the public insurer—they bought high-end vehicles and rolled back their odometers before staging collisions and hit-and-runs and filing false theft claims. The tampered odometers netted them higher pay-outs. “This was a sophisticated, high-level operation committed to defrauding MPI,” Brian Smiley, MPI spokesman, told CI August 17.

The insurer has paid out $600,000 in claims relating to the ring, but has frozen another $150,000 in claims, he said. Overall, the investigation involved 60 vehicles, all purchased out of province.

Winnipeg’s commercial crime unit arrested 21 people connected to the ring between August 12 and 14, so far charging 12 with various counts of fraud both over and under  $5,000. Though the investigation began in November 2008, “chances are the fraud had been going on prior to that,” Smiley said.

The ring—dubbed “Project Rollback”-- involved two Winnipeg area auto garages as well as area residents. According to a Winnipeg Police Service statement, additional arrests are expected in the coming weeks.