According to federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Washington, 23 people have been charged for their roles in staging automobile collisions.

The defendants named in the indictment are Ali Abed Yaser, Hussein A. Yasir, Insaf A. Karawi, Hasanein A. Yaser, Ahmad K. Bachay, Mashael A. Bachay, Mohammed Bajay, Hussain K. Bachay, Noor Tahseen Al-Maarej, Ali F. Al-Himrani, Rana J. Kaabawi, Amar F. Abdul-Salam, Ameer R. Mohammed, Mohammed F. Al-Himrani, Maria Elena Sanchez, Seifeddine A. Al-Kinani, Abdullah Al-Dulaimi, Firas S. Hadi, Farooq S. Yaseen, Khalil Abdul-Razaq, Jesus George Sanchez, Sinan Akrawi and Mohammed Naji Al-Jibory.

An 81-page indictment was unsealed regarding the case, naming the defendants. The New York Times reported the defendants live in Washington, California, Nevada and Michigan, as well as in British Columbia in Canada.

The charges filed against the defendants included wire and mail fraud, witness tampering, attempted tampering with evidence, conspiracy to commit health care fraud and attempted obstruction of an official proceeding.

Court documents said the fraud ring collected a total of nearly $1 million in false insurance claims by staging car collisions. The documents also noted the suspected perpetrators performed the staged collisions at night on deserted roads, to ensure there would be no witnesses.

To maximize the payouts, some of the claimants involved in the staged crashes installed weights on their car seats in order to get the airbags to deploy. Authorities also said others…