18 Arrested in 4th Large Insurance Fraud Ring : Autos: They are accused of staging accidents that cost companies up to $50 million in false claims.

In Los Angeles County’s fourth big auto insurance fraud case in nine months, 18 people were arrested Tuesday on felony charges of operating a ring that allegedly staged accidents that cost insurers up to $50 million in false claims.

One of those taken into custody, Alhambra physician Roberto Valenton, 43, faces charges of preparing at least six fraudulent medical reports for examinations that he never performed.

The alleged ringleader, Esther Diaz, 49, allegedly ran seminars in her living room on how to cheat the insurance system. Investigators for the state Insurance Department and the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said she had periodically faked three to four accidents a day over several years, and claims for each one averaged about $20,000.

Arrests of attorneys and other doctors are planned, chief fraud investigators said.

“Every lawyer and doctor dealing in staged accidents needs to be looking over their shoulders wondering if they are going to be our next target,” said Allen Field, head of the district attorney’s fraud bureau.

Armed with warrants, officers from both the Insurance Department and the district attorney’s office searched 15 locations, including five attorneys’ offices and six medical clinics across the county’s east side, from Pasadena to Downey.

Diaz, who was arrested first, at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday in her Downey home, is accused of recruiting others to stage accidents and then getting lawyers and medical bills to press the false claims. Recruits were allegedly paid $300 to $1,500.

Diaz faces five counts of filing fraudulent insurance claims and one count of conspiracy. The district attorney’s office recommended $1 million bail for Diaz, who they said used at least three assumed names.

“This woman took the concept of operating a small business out of her home beyond any reasonable limit,” said Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi in a written statement. “Since 1987, this ‘entrepreneur’ has been holding training seminars in her living room on how to stage auto accidents in order to bilk insurance companies out of millions of dollars.”

Ultimately, he noted, it is policyholders who pay for these claims with higher premiums.

Undercover investigators had managed to infiltrate the ring and observe firsthand the rehearsals, script writing and actual staging of accidents that involved $130,000 in claims, according to investigators.

Authorities did not permit reporters to speak to any of those arrested Tuesday; there was no comment on the charges.

Valenton, 43, a licensed doctor in California since 1979, tried repeatedly to cover his head with a leather jacket to avoid being photographed as he and other defendants were booked in downtown Los Angeles.

Also arrested as what the district attorney’s office described as Diaz’s “key lieutenants” were Ana Morales and Enrique Otero of Downey, Candelario de Jesus Ramirez of Los Angeles and Jorge Vildoza of Torrance.

Other alleged participants arrested Tuesday were Gerzain Pineda Andaya, Marisela Andaya and Caratina Pineda, all of Riverside, and Elizabeth Munoz Estrada, Hermina Munoz, Bertin Antonio Zamora, Josefina Gonzalez, Jose Gonzalez and Gilberto Peraza, all of Los Angeles. Also taken into custody were Martin Sanchez of Long Beach and Arturo Lagunas and Gonzalo Jimenez of San Pedro.

Over the last nine months, about 100 people have been arrested in the four Los Angeles County fraud investigations, according to Field and Ronald E. Warthen, chief investigator for the Insurance Department’s fraud bureau.

No trials have begun, but about half of those arrested have arranged plea agreements and received sentences in the two-to-three-year range, Warthen said.

“But that’s the small fry,” Field said. “Most of the heavies, the organizers, the doctors and the lawyers, have not pleaded, nor do we want them to. We are determined to bring them to trial and go after substantially longer sentences.”