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Insurance Fraudsters Convicted of Other Crimes\n\nINSURANCE CRIME DOES NOT PAY\n\nIn my experience those who commit property or casualty insurance fraud \nare seldom arrested, even more rarely are they tried and convicted. \nRoberto Torner was an insurance criminal who avoided arrest for his \ninsurance fraud activities but, because he was a serious criminal and \ndangerous, was arrested, tried and convicted of violent crimes. He filed\n a motion to vacate his conviction and sentence in United States Of \nAmerica v. Roberto Torner, CRIMINAL No. 3:17-343, United States District\n Court, M.D. Pennsylvania (November 1, 2023) and the USDC kept Torner in\n Prison.\n\nBACKGROUND\n\nIn June 2015, the Luzerne County Drug Task Force commenced an \ninvestigation into Roberto Torner after receiving information about his \nheroin trafficking and firearms activity from a confidential informant \n(C.I.). Investigators subsequently used the C.I. to conduct a controlled\n purchase of approximately five grams of heroin from Torner, his \ngirlfriend Liza Robles, and his associate David Alzugaray-Lugones. The \ncontrolled buy and conversations leading up to the event were captured \nin a series of recorded phone calls and body camera videos obtained by \nthe C.I.\n\nThe ATF commenced an investigation into Torner, Robles, and \nAlzugaray-Lugones involving suspected arson, insurance fraud, and \nfirearms offenses. On August 28, 2017, after obtaining information about\n Robles's historical firearms purchases and activities, and after \ninterviewing witnesses who reported recent instances of Torner \npossessing firearms, the ATF executed search warrants at Torner's \nproperties. During the execution of those warrants, the ATF recovered \nmultiple firearms and ammunition.\xa0 The ATF interviewed additional \nwitnesses, who relayed accounts of Torner possessing firearms.\n\nTorner was granted pretrial release after being charged in a criminal \ncomplaint and subsequent indictment. Thereafter, the ATF obtained \ninformation from witnesses that Torner possessed C-4 explosives while on\n pretrial release. On January 5, 2018, law enforcement officials \nexecuted a search warrant at one of Torner's properties, where they \nrecovered approximately 1.5 pounds of stolen U.S. military C-4 plastic \nexplosives.\n\nFollowing a 12-day trial, Torner and his codefendants were convicted of \nall counts and Torner was sentenced to 270 months of imprisonment, five \nyears of supervised release, and a $20,000 fine.\n\nTorner challenged his conviction and sentence on direct appeal, only to \nhave Third Circuit Court of Appeals affirm his conviction and sentence. \nTorner alleged that counsel provided ineffective assistance at trial for\n failing to seek suppression of recordings.\n\nDISCUSSION\n\nA review of the motion and the government's brief, as well as the law \nand the claims make it clear that Torner's claims are without merit.\xa0 \nTorner has not shown either the denial of a constitutional right nor \nthat jurists of reason would disagree with this court's resolution of \nhis claims and\xa0 the court denied Torner's motion to vacate.\n\nZALMA OPINION\n\nI have spent the last 55 years working to help insurers and police \nauthorities to defeat those who commit insurance fraud and disabuse \nauthorities of the fact that insurance fraud is a non-violent crime and a\n crime without victims. Judges have been known to say from the bench \nthat an insurance company can't be a victim. In this case the ATF took \non an insurance fraudster and convicted him of crimes of violence and \npossession of weapons and stolen explosives. His activities defrauding \ninsurers and dealing drugs were ignored and his other criminal conduct \nstopped the fraud by putting Torner and his co-defendants in prison and \nstopped his work as an insurance fraud perpetrator. A small victory for \nthe defrauded insurers.