Video released this week by California‘s Department of Insurance allegedly shows a group of Los Angeles residents committing fake bear attacks on their own luxury cars — including a Rolls-Royce Ghost and Mercedes-Benz “G-Wagon” — using a bear suit and meat shredders, according to officials.

“It was clearly a human in a bear suit,” the department said in a press release on Wednesday after handing down charges to Ruben Tamrazian, 26, Ararat Chirkinian, 39, Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32, and Alfiya Zuckerman, 39.

The group is accused of using a bear costume to fake at least three attacks on a 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost, a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350. The original price tags for all three vehicles, combined, is over $350,000 — with a base sedan for the Ghost, alone, coming in at $245,000.

Four arrested after videos show fake bear attacks for insurance payouts.

Operation Bear Claw reveals suspects allegedly wore bear costume to commit insurance fraud. pic.twitter.com/9mzfvaq2B3

— CA Dept of Insurance (@CDInews) November 13, 2024

State investigators say an insurance company came forward earlier this year after receiving a report about one of the “bear” attacks, which seemed suspicious. The company had gotten a claim about an incident in Lake Arrowhead on Jan. 28, which left a Rolls-Royce — the Ghost — with interior damage, according to officials.

A surveillance video provided by the suspects showed what they claimed was a bear having its way with their vehicle, opening a front door and making its way to the back for some grub before exiting, the suspects told the insurance company. Photos released by CDI show damage and scratches to the car’s interior.

“Upon further scrutiny of the video, the investigation determined the bear was actually a person in a bear costume,” CDI officials said Wednesday. “Detectives found two additional insurance claims with two different insurance companies, for the suspects with the same date of loss and at the same location.” Additional video had also been submitted.

After launching an investigation, the department was able to piece everything together using some canny techniques of its own.

“To further ensure it was not actually a bear in the video, the Department had a biologist from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife review the three alleged bear videos and they also opined it was clearly a human in a bear suit,” CDI officials said. “After executing a search warrant, detectives found the bear costume in the suspects’ home.”

In total, the insurance companies involved were allegedly defrauded of $141,839, according to CDI. The department was assisted by Glendale Police and California Highway Patrol. San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office is handling the case.

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2 federal judges who boycotted Columbia law grads didn’t commit misconduct, review panel says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

September 17, 2024, 10:10 am CDT

Two federal judges who said they wouldn’t hire future law grads from Columbia University did not commit misconduct, according to a review panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Atlanta’s judicial council.

The review panel appeared to be referring to U.S. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Branch and U.S. District Judge Tilman E. Self III of the Middle District of Georgia, the only judges who signed a letter announcing the boycott within the 11th Circuit.

Law360, Reuters and Bloomberg Law covered the Aug. 12 order released last week.

Branch and Self were among 13 federal judges who signed the letter pledging not to hire future Columbia grads for clerkships because of the school’s handling of campus disruptions. All 13 judges were appointees of former President Donald Trump.

The judges’ May 2024 letter deemed Columbia to be “an incubator of bigotry” and said the university should embrace viewpoint diversity and impose serious consequences for students and faculty who participate in campus disruptions and violate university rules.

The no-misconduct finding follows an August 2024 decision drawing the same conclusion by a review panel of the 5th Circuit at New Orleans’ judicial council. The 5th Circuit review panel found no ethics violations by eight federal judges within the 5th Circuit, including, apparently, Circuit Judge James C. Ho.

The 11th Circuit review panel affirmed a decision by the 11th Circuit Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr. The order included Pryor’s June 2024 decision dismissing the complaint.

There is no basis for a finding of misconduct, Pryor had said.

“Federal judges routinely hire law clerks and must consider applicants’ educational backgrounds in determining whether an applicant is qualified for and will succeed in the job. As part of that consideration, judges are permitted to make reasonable conclusions regarding the value and quality of a school’s educational program,” he wrote.

A person who filed a complaint against the judges with the 11th Circuit said there is every reason to think that judges who are willing to punish a university and its graduates “will skew their judicial rulings in a similar manner.”

“It is no stretch of the imagination,” the complainant wrote, to conceive that the judges will “attempt to discern the political views of the parties and counsel before them and discriminate and retaliate against them.”

The complainant also called for an investigation into whether “outside organizations or foreign governments” orchestrated the judges’ letter.

Pryor responded that that the complainant’s claims lack sufficient evidence, including insufficient evidence to show that the judges “treated or will treat individuals in a demonstrably egregious and hostile manner.”