Biometric Evidence Key to Understanding CHP-Facilitated Auto Insurance Fraud

Biometric evidence that Raymundo Mendietamorante (“Raymundo”), accused professional car crasher and insurance fraudster, has facial features amazingly similar to those of Captain Mariano Santiago (“Santiago”) of the California Highway Patrol, Altadena Station. An international biometric expert, who wishes to remain anonymous, suggests that Raymundo is most likely the father of Santiago. In fact, after further investigation, it appears that at least one of Raymundo’s grandsons, may be Santiago’s son.

The biometric evidence is important, because it suggests that Santiago plays an ongoing role in a larger auto insurance fraud ring, in which innocent drivers are marked at fault, in order to facilitate insurance fraud. 

Take for instance Elder Arambula’s car crash. On September 26, 2024 – Raymundo rear ended Arambula’s car and then smashed into the passenger side of Arambula’s car. The second impact caused Arambula’s red Toyota Prius to spin out and hit the guardrail. 

The CHP marked Arambula at fault for engaging in a sideswipe. Nonetheless, Arambula’s evidence contradicted this finding; hence, Arambula requested a second meeting with Officer Eric Voss and Sergeant Bejar, showing both of them the evidence that he was rear ended. The evidence presented above shows how the crack on Raymundo’s headlight is almost identical to the indentation left on Arambula’s rear bumper. 

Despite the new evidence, Voss and Bejar affirmed Arambula’s at-fault conclusion. Arambula contacted Captain Santiago to review the evidence and for a collision reconstruction expert. Santiago refused and affirmed Voss and Bejar’s finding.

With the at-fault conclusion, Raymundo and his grandson, Aldrin Garcia were able to cash out on Arambula’s insurance policy. Raymundo collected $20,000 - Garcia, $10,000.

At the time, Garcia pretended to be a nurse and passenger who  was going to work. Raymundo pretended to be a Lyft Driver. But when Garcia and Raymundo’s driver’s licenses were examined, both had the same address at Huntington Beach.

The Filipino family fraud ring extends beyond the San Gabriel Valley. According to the Department of Insurance, Andre Angelo Reyes, “36, of Corona” is “the organized ring’s ringleader”.  The Department alleges that Reyes “befriended Santistevan and other CHP employees by donating to various CHP events and parties. Santistevan printed and unlawfully sold thousands of traffic collision face pages to Reyes who would then provide the reports to E. Parga. E. Parga would then contact the parties involved in the collision, pretending to be from their insurance company and coordinate having their vehicle towed to a repair center that they misrepresented as approved by the insurance company.”

But biometric evidence strongly suggests that Reyes is also the son of Captain Santiago. Legal Lens suspects that Santistevan is his mother. Through these familial connections, these alleged scammers have had an easier time facilitating fraud and evading accountability.

 

The Legal Lens believes that Sgt. Bejar needs to be investigated as to whether he’s related to Captain Santiago as well. Arambula has been left with a damaged back; uncompensated; and marked at fault – harming his driving record. 

In today's American government, “the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Noble Laureate.

*All parties are presumed innocent, until otherwise proven.

Baldwin Park City Council Appoints New City Manager With a History of Incompetence and Financial Mismanagement; Manuel Carrillo Suspected of Spiking Pay to Increase His Retirement Pay.

Baldwin Park City Council, after the resignation of its last City Manager, Enrique Zaldivar, appoints Manuel Carrillo, Jr. as new city manager. Carrillo has a history of incompetence and financial mismanagement. 

In May 29, 2015 - the Legal Lens accused Carrillo of laundering money through a sham nonprofit called the Baldwin Park Community Center Corporation ("BPCCC"). At the core of the allegation is that Carrillo has been allegedly laundering money through the BPCCC by running a sham event called the Santa Clothes Program. At that event, over $20,000 of gift cards would be purchased at Walmart. A few children would receive some. And the rest of those gift cards, tens of thousands of dollars worth, cannot be accounted for.

When the Legal Lens asked for him to account for the monies, he provided it a sham list of over 600 children. Many of the names have been confirmed to be non-existent, meaning those kids didn't exist.

As a result of the Legal Lens's reporting, the State of California dissolved the BPCCC. Instead, now, the City started a new nonprofit called the Baldwin Park Charitable Relief Foundation, which appears to be a slush fund for the council members. Carrillo is also a director of this nonprofit.

Also around 2014, staff revolted against Carrillo for paying them minimum wage, while he was the most overpaid parks and recreation director in Southern California. Carrillo gave a boxing coach, who worked there for around 20 years, a 40 cent raise an hour. At this revolt, staff complained that Carrillo was incompetent and uneducated.

The boxing program also protested Carrillo in 2013, which led to the program being open today. Carrillo's intention was to shut down the program and give the equipment for free to his cronies.

Others have complained that Carrillo stole from City funds when the City paid for gas, which was used for personal travel.

More recently, Carrillo has not done enough to protect the boxing program from an accused pedophile.

Cell phone records reveal that Carrillo was talking daily with disgraced Council Member Ricardo Pacheco, who has pled guilty to taking bribes.

Under Carrillo's management, both Barnes Park and Morgan Park have deteriorated. Barnes Park is notable for criminal loitering and drug activity.

Carrillo currently fails to account for where the money goes to from the parks and recreation program. Also, it appears that a lot of the grant money to parks is also accounted for.

It's suspected that Carrillo wants a bigger pay as City Manager, so he can retire at a higher pay, which is calculated by the last three years of one's salary.

In general, the Legal Lens rates Carrillo as an "F" for City Manager.

California State Bar Suspends License of Former City Attorney, Robert Tafoya for Federal Bribery and Tax Evasion Convictions

 

On April 14, 2025 - Office of Chief Trial Counsel for the State Bar of California suspended Robert Nacionales-Tafoya's bar license after receiving his conviction of bribery and tax evasion.

Tafoya pled guilty to bribing current State Senator Susan Rubio with marijuana kickbacks. According to Tafoya, in turn, Rubio would vote to grant those who gave her bribes, a marijuana business license. Rubio apparently amassed around $230,000 in this scheme. Also, in exchange, Tafoya would keep his job as city attorney and receive additional work, if Rubio became State Senator, which happened. Rubio allegedly used her marijuana slush funds to finance her campaign race.

Around 2014, General counsel of Legal Lens, filed a bar complaint against Robert Tafoya when he misrepresented his signature in a court filing, amounting to forgery. It's similar to the same type of forgery that Cristeta Paguirigan-Summers, who was the consultant for marijuana licenses in Baldwin Park, committed and was disbarred for. (Legal Lens suspects that Cristeta was Tafoya's legal mentor.) Despite the clear and convincing evidence, the State Bar dropped the complaint against Tafoya.

The State Bar should make available all complaints that have been filed against Robert Tafoya in light of the Tom Girdardi scandal. Girardi embezzled more than $15 million. Over 40 years, the public filed more than 200 complaints against Girardi, but the bar failed to discipline Girardi over any of them. Had it done so, it's probable that victims would not have been so injured.

Hence, the public should also know how many complaints were filed against Tafoya, and in fact, all attorney complaints should be made available as a public record that could be requested by anyone.

City of Los Angeles Illegally Fines People for Parking for $93; Mayor Karen Bass, Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, and Ken Husting to Blame.

Ken Husting, 
Principal Transportation Engineer for
LADOT's Bureau of Parking Management

 To be heard on June 20th, this year, I filed a challenge to a parking ticket I illegally received for $93 from the City of Los Angeles. The problem with the ticket is that I was fined for parking in a red fire zone, when the curb is painted a dark blue grey and not red. See picture below. 

I complained to Mayor Karen Bass; Council Member Eunisses Hernandez (who is in charge of that district), and Ken Husting, the Principal Transportation Engineer for LADOT's Bureau of Parking Management. I filed two agency challenges to the ticket, but both of them said that the ticket was valid, even though the color of the paint is not red. There are no other parking signs to give notice to motorists this is an illegal area to park in.

On February 3, 2025, Husting emailed, "in my opinion there is enough to see a red curb." Clearly, this is contradicted by the picture below.

According to NBC last month, the city of Los Angeles wants to more aggressively enforce parking citations as a way to raise revenue for the City. By aggressive enforcement, it also intends to cite motorists who are not illegally parked, which is the equivalent of stealing their money.

Crosstown stated that the parking enforcement staff costs are actually costing the City more money than parking citations actually bring in. Ken Husting's salary alone, according to Transparent California, with benefits, is $308, 128.29.

The solution to this is to hold Mayor Karen Bass, who a number of people have claimed in incompetent, because she was partying in Ghana, while Los Angeles burned; along with Hernandez accountable. Currently, to pay for just the gross amount of Husting's salary, the City needs to issue 3313 tickets per year. The City needs to rethink through its parking scheme and enforcement.

A Special Thank you to Singapore Airlines and Goh Choon Phong

 

I had perhaps the best flight in my life on Singapore Airline from Los Angeles to Tokyo, Tokyto to Singapore. The airline didn't have my pajama size, and the cabin crew alerted the new crew in Tokyo to have it ready. That's what I call customer service. Also, when I had an immigration visa issue, the airlines called immigration for me to sort it out immediately.

A special thanks to CEO Goh Choon Phong, for his excellence in customer focus and service.

I look forward to flying with Singapore Airlines again soon.

Critical Bandit Tow Truck Ransoming Altadena Fire Victim's Cars Most Likely Identified

The Legal Lens has most likely identified one of the bandit tow trucks featured in ABC's story, "Officials warn of tow-truck scam targeting Eaton Fire victims". According to ABC, after the devastation of the fires, these tow trucks told victims that they were contracted by Altadena officials to help tow cars. But the cars would be towed to hidden locations and then ransomed for over $3,000. (Disclaimer: Identification of the Altadena bandit tow truck is not conclusive until verified by the government, and all accused are presumed innocent.)

On September 26, 2024 - on the Pasadena Freeway, 210 West - Elder Arambula, college athlete, was involved in a similar scandal. After a serious car crash on the freeway, a similar tow truck featured on the ABC story came literally 5 to 10 minutes later. The driver told him that Toytoa and Allstate partnered together to tow his truck for free because of the collision. The Prius was then stored at Stanton, California. Arambula attempted to pick up his car on the weekend, but the manager of Cyrus Towing, Daniella Sulllivan "Dee Dee" told him not to worry about the fees. 

But four days after the accident, she charged around $1,700. Dee Dee ransomed the car and threatened that she would take title to it, if he didn't pay. Cyrus Towing and Dee Dee appeared interested in Prii and Teslas in particular. Other victims have said their hybrids and electric cars were also targeted.

After an investigation of the incident, Arambula believes that the tow trucker owner hired a professional car crasher to collide into him, and that same professional car crasher then called the tow truck to pick up his Prius. Arambula has suffered with four herniated discs from the crash.

Arambula took a photo of the tow truck, and the Legal Lens team has matched it to the photo of the tow truck featured in the ABC story.

The owner and driver behind the tow truck that allegedly defrauded Arambula is Amir Eftekhari, an Iranian national. Eftekhari's preying ground appears to be the Pasadena and Altadena vicinity. He lives in Monrovia. Eftekhari has been sued around 60 times and has recently came out of bankruptcy to discharge a majority of his debts. Eftekhari has also expunged his criminal conviction of driving a commercial vehicle without a proper license.

Former employee of Cyrus Towing, Vinny Smith, on the record, has identified the car crasher as an employee of Cyrus Towing. Smith said that  Espiridion Mendietamorante goes by the monkider of "Delta". Smith recalled that at least one car he picked up was crashed in a similar manner to Arambula's.

Smith also alleges that the Iranian national has a long history of problems with Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE"). This is relevant to the story, in so far as the fact that terrorist and organized crime expert, Loretta Napoleoni states that money from such operations go back to the government state. Hence, in this case, the fraud money may be going back to the State of Iran.

It appears that Arambula's car crash and evidence has triggered a probe with the Department of Insurance and California Highway Patrol. According to Google Reviews and Yelp, it appears that Cyrus Towing is no longer in business. The Department of Transportation states that Eftekhari's tow truck is only licensed for private tows.

That doesn't mean, however, that Eftekahri is still not targeting and preying on the property of vulnerable victims. Another concerning aspect to this story, is that the circumstantial evidence and a recent expert opinion suggests that the Altadena CHP station may be receiving a kickback for these tows. According to video evidence of Dee Dee, the Altadena CHP call Eftekhari regarding which cars have crashed. According to Smith, for every car successfully impounded, Smith alleges that the officer and other spotters receives a $500 kickback. 

The Legal Lens has obtained more evidence today, article to come, that strongly suggests the Altadena CHP is working with these bandit tow truck owners to facilitate these predatory tow-and-impound scams.

Nonetheless, the clearest identifying unique factor that matches both the ABC's photo and Arambuala's photo of the bandit tow truck is the cruelty behind the predatory scheme. Eftekhari, Sullivan, and Mendietamorante would fit the match for that level of reprehensibility.

When asked to comment about Eftekhari, Arambula stated, "We need him [Eftekahri] to face justice against every innocent human being that he harmed and pay his time."

California State Bar Files Charges Against Former City Attorney, Robert Tafoya for Federal Bribery and Tax Evasion Convictions

On February 21, 2025 - Office of Chief Trial Counsel for the State Bar of California transmitted a copy of Robert Tafoya's conviction of federal charges of bribery and tax evasion. It is now pending review before the State Bar Court. 

Tafoya pled guilty to bribing current State Senator Susan Rubio with marijuana kickbacks. According to Tafoya, in turn, Rubio would vote to grant those who gave her bribes, a marijuana business license. Rubio apparently amassed around $230,000 in this scheme. Also, in exchange, Tafoya would keep his job as city attorney and receive additional work, if Rubio became State Senator, which happened. Rubio allegedly used her marijuana slush funds to finance her campaign race.

Around 2014, General counsel of Legal Lens, filed a bar complaint against Robert Tafoya when he misrepresented his signature in a court filing, amounting to forgery. It's similar to the same type of forgery that Cristeta Paguirigan-Summers, who was the consultant for marijuana licenses in Baldwin Park, committed and was disbarred for. (Legal Lens suspects that Cristeta was Tafoya's legal mentor.) Despite the clear and convincing evidence, the State Bar dropped the complaint against Tafoya.

The State Bar should make available all complaints that have been filed against Robert Tafoya in light of the Tom Girdardi scandal. Girardi embezzled more than $15 million. Over 40 years, the public filed more than 200 complaints against Girardi, but the bar failed to discipline Girardi over any of them. Had it done so, it's probable that victims would not have been so injured.

Hence, the public should also know how many complaints were filed against Tafoya, and in fact, all attorney complaints should be made available as a public record that could be requested by anyone.