Four people were indicted and charged for their roles in an alleged scheme to file fraudulent travel insurance claims and steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from different insurance companies, according to New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin.
Agustin Matos, 40, of North Haledon, Kenia Ivonne Vasquez, 44, of the Bronx, New York, and Keyra Carla Liriano, 45, and Patricio Arturo Alfonso, 46, both of Fort Lee, are each charged with conspiracy, insurance fraud, attempted theft by deception, impersonation/theft of identity and falsifying/tampering with records, Platkin said.
The indictment by a state grand jury was returned on Dec. 5, 2025, officials said.
The Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor received a referral from the Special Investigation Unit of American International Group about the fraudulent claims, officials said.
From April 2022 to August 2023, in Bergen, Hudson and Passaic counties in New Jersey, in New York and other undetermined places, the four defendants allegedly opened several travel insurance policies with multiple insurance companies, covering the same trip to the same foreign destination, officials said.
When applying for these policies, they allegedly used false identities and provided credit card information that tied them together, according to authorities.
The four individuals allegedly submitted identical information to multiple carriers, while certifying they had no other insurance covering the medical expenses or the trip, officials said.
The OIFP’s investigation revealed that the defendants had not traveled to the countries as alleged and they had never been hospitalized as they claimed, authorities said.
Almost all records the four people submitted to insurance companies as part of the scheme were allegedly altered, fraudulent, or completely fabricated, according to officials.
The four people allegedly would file claims with each carrier, falsely asserting they had been hospitalized abroad and had incurred thousands of dollars in medical expenses, officials said.
These claims would have been covered under the travel insurance policies, but most of the insurance companies denied the fraudulent claims, according to authorities.
Liriano is charged with theft by deception for allegedly obtaining $14,835 in claim payments from two carriers, officials said.
In all, the four defendants attempted to defraud the insurance companies of about $252,852, officials said.
Authorities said Matos attempted to get $19,986, Vasquez tried to get $27,812, Liriano tried to claim $37,226 and Alfonso attempted to claim $167,829.
4 charged in travel insurance scam, attempting to steal more than $200k, N.J. officials say
