A citizen of Russia was sentenced in Anchorage's U.S. District Court last Tuesday for running an insurance scam that netted him tens of thousands of dollars. He had been indicted on three counts of wire fraud.

26-year-old Rustem Mukhametshin was sentenced by Judge Timothy Burgess in U.S. District Court on Tuesday of last week to 12 months in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release. Mukhametshin must also pay restitution of more than $70,000.

Mukhametshin is scheduled to be deported after completion of his sentence.

The man carried out his scheme to defraud insurance companies of tens of thousands of dollars by exploiting a practice commonly used by insurance companies. Insurance companies generally do not inspect a vehicle prior to insuring it and assume that the vehicle is of reasonable condition and its value is consistant with other vehicles of similar make, model, year and mileage.

Mukhametshin exploited this by buying damaged vehicles at a cost far less than what a similar undamaged car was worth. He then insured the vehicle and staged accidents and collected on the insurance money which was far above the costs he originally paid for the vehicle.

Mukhametshin carried out this scheme on at least four occasions and only stopped after the insurance company refused to pay.

Mukhametshin also had confederates that were carrying out the same scheme during this time.