Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor (OIFP) have announced prison sentences for two individuals involved in separate insurance fraud cases.
"Insurance is a necessary protection against unintended consequences, and it can be expensive to maintain," stated Attorney General Platkin. "People who rip off the system contribute unnecessarily to this cost. Filing false claims is a crime, and we will find and punish those who commit these illegal acts."
Interim Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Al Garcia added, "Our office was established to combat exactly the types of schemes these defendants allegedly engaged in. Our investigators and attorneys are always working to root out this wrongdoing. We are grateful for the cooperation of insurers who help us put together these cases and bring the offenders to justice."
Yoel Arencibia Cabrera, 42, from Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Jesus Lopez, 46, from Lebanon, Pennsylvania, were charged on August 28, 2024. The charges included arson (1st degree) and conspiracy (2nd degree), among others. On June 28, 2023, Cabrera paid Lopez to set fire to his 2023 Acura MDX. Following the incident on July 1, 2023, Cabrera attempted to claim insurance proceeds from Progressive Insurance Company. The case was referred to OIFP by Progressive Insurance Company. Cabrera pleaded guilty to second-degree insurance fraud on April 14, 2025, before Hudson County Superior Court Judge John A. Young Jr., receiving a five-year state prison sentence on June 13, 2025. Lopez remains a fugitive; he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
In another case, Timaahd Barnes, 34, from Clementon, New Jersey was indicted on October 24, 2024. He faced charges of theft by deception (2nd degree) and financial facilitation of criminal activity (2nd degree) following a referral from CSAA Insurance Group. While employed as a remote claims adjuster for CSAA between August 2 and October 11 in 2022, Barnes diverted payments from legitimate claims approximately seventy times totaling $390,851 in disbursements by CSAA and its subsidiaries. Additionally, he obtained over $75,000 from Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company through similar fraudulent activities between August 28, 2023 and April 24, 2024. Barnes pled guilty on April 7th of this year and received a five-year state prison sentence on May 30th before Camden County Superior Court Judge Gwendolyn Blue. During sentencing proceedings $101092 were seized with orders that half be repaid back each respectively towards CSAA Insurance along with Reliance Standard Life.
The Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor is tasked with investigating prosecuting deterring statewide coordination efforts regarding anti-insurance fraud across New Jersey employing more than fifty detectives alongside twenty prosecutors tackling complex schemes.
Their mission includes statewide coordination resulting successful prosecutions often stemming initial anonymous tips provided via toll-free hotline at '1-877-55-FRAUD'. State regulations allow rewards eligibility based upon information leading arrests prosecutions convictions related offenses reported anonymously either phone or online channels available public use.
